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CalevPhoto

Photographing the Earth, one millimeter at a time…
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Stalking bees in the garden

Those of you who know me will find it very odd that I actually attempted to get some shots of bees the other day.  Even more shocking is that I went with my MP-E 65 instead of the 180L- which is what I normally use when stalking bees.  The thing is, I am absolutely terrified of things with wings and stingers.  However, I am beginning to warm up to bees and I have found that they generally don’t mind me taking their picture while they are busy gathering pollen.

I photographed what I believe to be three different types of bees that day.  All of them were gathering pollen and generally didn’t mind me.  Sometimes when one got rather close I would winch a bit but in general they didn’t seem very annoyed with me.  There were quite a few at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens and bees could be found on a wide variety of flowers.  Though I spent most of my time taking pictures on purple alliums, I liked the shots of one that I found on a triangular yellow flower a bit more.  Here is a shot of the flower, though I do not know what type it is.

I would generally start at 1x, and then slowly go down to 2x as needed.  I didn’t dare start out at the higher magnification as I was too worried that I would bump the bee.  In general, I find myself becoming a bit less terrified of these every time I take a picture.  Of course, I’m not sure I would try this with a hornet or one of the giant honeybees I saw in Asia.  The next shot is one Nelya liked a lot.

Here you can see the bee gathering pollen with its tongue.  I’m rather proud of these shots and find it interesting how sometimes photographs bring a bit more than a pretty picture.

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Posted in Insects and Macro photography 2 years, 2 months ago at 8:48 pm.

5 comments

5 Replies

  1. You should be proud they are all very well done, I really like the first one with the gaze of the bee right at the lens, neat shots !!

  2. I too am terrified of everything with more than four legs, but find them much less so when I am behind a camera. Beautiful macro’s!

  3. Don’t bother about the regular and lonely insects. If you don’t have any allergy to venom and they aren’t in a swarm, you’re safe most of the time. Though be careful where you step as I’ve got a pretty nasty experience with some swarms of ants. Last one was a month ago in an abandoned wooden house invaded by a huge swarm of red ants.

  4. High Five . . . I know how much you love them bees!

  5. Great shots. I like the one that shows the bee actually feeding the best too.

    I’m outdoors a lot and usually get stung two or three times a year when I accidentally disturb a wasp I didn’t notice. I’ve never been stung while photographing a stinging insect — knock on wood — and with my equipment I must get really up close and personal.


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