Spring Colors
This is lavender in the foreground and broom bush providing the nice backdrop in the background. I love the contrast here, and the evening light added just that little bit more. The little spider web in the top completes the overall look for me.
Carpenter Bees
Lavender attracts three varieties of bees and the paper wasp in my front yard. These guys are Carpenter Bees. They don’t have stingers but are still rather aggressive. Despite their large size, they are harder to shoot in an interesting way than the honey bees since they are much faster and much more impatient. In the top photo, if you look, you can see my reflection in the eye. The bee below seems to have lost an antennae.
That Was Bitter!
I am finding that I enjoy taking photos of the bees in the front yard. They don’t mind me being there and they are great subjects. This little guy was hanging on to the lavender with just his hind legs while cleaning his tongue.
Bees, Again
A moment was found this evening to take a few (well 180) photos. I only managed to get as far as the sidewalk when the bees and warm light caught my eye yet again. Today I was determined to get some better focused and timed shots. I set the camera on shutter (1600) priority and auto iso so I can focus on focus. To get these shots I center-shot each one since I knew the PP cropping would be significant. This gave me more leeway if the bees took off.
I feel like I am getting better at these shots. Each of these captures some good detail with the bees and their interaction with the lavender. Also, I finally got a head-on shot. Tongue out and everything!
Still Chasing Bees
I have been quiet on here lately, but the shutter has still been firing. Bees are still capturing the attention of my camera. They are challenging to capture in interesting moments, which usually means flight. I’ve been getting pretty close and I upset one of the larger bees (which are quite aggressive even towards the other bees). The trick I learned here was a shutter speed of about 1600 was required to get the better shots. Manual focus seems to be the way to go along with patience. Chasing the bees with the camera is just plain frustrating as they are far faster than the focus.
Reverse lens macro of one of the bees on the spanish lavender.
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