bees on yellow flowers

[eivindm]

Here are two pictures I took yesterday:



Click here to zoom


Click here to zoom

Too bad the season is almost over and I don't have time to get out of the city again  :(

[Mici]

absolutely superb pics

[eivindm]

Thanks a lot Mici!  It took me 80 pictures to get those two :-)  I have a lot of "almost good" but not good enough pictures.  It is really hard to take the pictures within the 2-3 seconds the bee is on the flower, and it took some time before I got the hang of it.  I have to do this again soon.  It has been a long time since I had so much fun with my camera, and it is 10 times more fun than with flies which sits on the same flower twice or three times as long  :-)

[Mici]

yeah, i planed to make a million pics of bees on different flowers, than my brother got a hold on the camera:(
well anyway, have any good tips? how much super-macro does your camera have, i think i couldn't make a pic this good with my own (6cm i think)

[eivindm]

I used a 75-300mm lens with 68mm extension tubes.  That gave me ebough magnification to almost fill the frame with the bee.  In addition I use a bracket that holds a blitz in a way that gives the subject light from the top left.  This way the light of the blitz gives most of the light on the exposure and helps "freeze" the subject which I need since the camera is hand held. I can take a picture of my camera with the equipent later so you can see what I mean.

[Mici]

heh i kinda get the picture, something really BIG. but please do, show us your "armament"

[eivindm]

If you own two lenses, you can also reverse mount a smaller lens on a big one.  
Here is a page about it:
http://www.pbase.com/dang/reversed_lens

This guy has bought an adapter from what I can see, but you can also just use some duct tape to tape the two lenses together.  It works like a charm, and you get really extreme magnifications without extra equipment.

[eivindm]

This is what I used

[Mici]

woohooo, just don't walk around with it, might get arested for possesing a cold weapon :lol:  nice "machine" what can i say. so how much did you spend on all your photo gadgets?

[eivindm]

Much of the equipment is not new.  I don't know what it is worth now, but I can tell what I paid for it.  The camera is the cheapest digital SLR from Canon, the 350D (it is called rebel xt or something in the US).  With a 18-50 lens from Sigma (4.0 max aperture) I gave around $1200.  The lens on the picture though, is a canon 75-300mm (4.0/5.6) which was worth around $300.  The extension tubes costed about $240 and the blitz and blitz cable about $370. The bracket is home made.  I also have some other equipment (like a tripod, another lens, an analog SLR, filters etc) which is not shown in the picture, but nothing of it is of the more expensive types (relative to what it could have costed with more professional variants).

I have had the photography hobby for many years, so I didn't buy it all at once :-)  It took me many years to get all my equipment.  And since much of it is not new, the value of it today is much lower.

But as I mentioned above in an earlier posting, it is possible to do extreme macro with much cheaper equipment (using a reverse mounted lens on an other lens and some duct tape).  Buying a lot of expensive equipment before you know if it is something you really need and can make use of is very unwise.  I have never bought new equipment before I knew I really needed it.  I often see photographer with very expensive equipement they don't know how to use.  My equipment is quite cheap for a SLR system, but still I am responsible myself most of the time when the picture is not razor sharp, not my equipment.  It is very possble to take great pictures with a cheap SLR and a cheap lens.  The photographer is the vital part, not the lens or camera body, and the thing that can make you take great pictures is a lot of practice and maybe some good reading about technique. Wait to buy more equipment till you know you need it, and you know WHAT you need.

I am still just an amateur, and I often take terrible pictures.  But once in a while when I take a great shot, I get a thrill that makes this hobby so fun. It is allways possible to take better pictures, and I allways dream of the "perfect picture" which I will never get :-)

[Yarra_Valley]

Lovely pics eivindm.

Yeah in the US the 350D is known at the Digital Rebel XT. Canon has just released the 400D, and you can see a review of it on dpreview.com. Canon are releasing a heap of new models at the moment.

i got a used 28 - 200 for my slr, which was quite cheap an great for travelling.

I'm in Bulgaria at the moment, lovely place. Bought some Bulgarian honey to try today :P.

Щеьгр сх шге КЯ шге 350а ся нхдух ья шге асжсшьв иефев ЙШл Ъьхдх гья ткяш иевеьяеа шге 400Ар ьха щдк ъьх яее ь иесэеу до сш дх азиеэсеулъдпл Ъьхдх ьие иеьвеясхж ь геьз до хеу пдаевя ьш шге пдпехшл

hehe, had to do that ;)

[akarlovic]

Foto Karlovic 2005/2006

[eivindm]

Very nice pictures akariovic.  I just realized that I had forgot to reply to your post.

I have also tried to get some bee pictures of bees on dandelions, but I have never got a good one.  I think I was a bit too late in the season for that and I almost didn't see any bee on them at all :-)  I better try again next year.

[buzzbee]

Keep up the good photos.guys. Very nice!! :lol:

[abejaruco]

Having a pollen bath has to be a nice experience.


This image is my favorita, a giant nectar glass where you can drink and drink.

And this is not a flower, but it is yellow.