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MEMBER BULLETIN BOARD => PHOTO PAGE - MEMBER PHOTOS & BEE-MOVIES HERE! => Topic started by: Ed M. on April 04, 2005, 06:28:39 pm

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Ed M. on April 04, 2005, 06:28:39 pm

Not much of a bee photo but It caught my eye so I thought I'd share. Today looked like we needed some air traffic control.



Must have taken 20 shots of this drone and didn't see the mite until I loaded it in the computer

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Horns Pure Honey on April 06, 2005, 09:50:32 pm

Great pics, I really like the first one, looks like something in a movie, bye :D

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Jay on April 06, 2005, 09:52:45 pm

Now are you rolling that drone to collect for instrumental insemination?

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Ed M. on April 07, 2005, 07:22:03 am

Quote from: Jay

Now are you rolling that drone to collect for instrumental insemination?

Unfortunately I was doing it just for the photos, but that's how it's done for real. I'm not quite ready equipment wise to do insemination, but one day it will come.

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: leominsterbeeman on April 07, 2005, 12:33:17 pm

Quote

I'm not quite ready equipment wise to do insemination, but one day it will come.

Now that's funny!

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: beemaster on April 07, 2005, 01:03:03 pm

These are GREAT PICS - I love the depth and focus - and you totally NAILED the brightness, which is tough with white hives and darker backgrouds - GREAT GREAT JOB!!!!

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Kris^ on April 07, 2005, 01:27:33 pm

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or . . . what's wrong with that drone's head???

-- Kris

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Robo on April 07, 2005, 01:55:11 pm

It's the "other" end.

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Bee Boy on April 07, 2005, 02:00:40 pm

Dude nice pics!!!! Did you use a digital camera?

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Kris^ on April 07, 2005, 03:01:10 pm

Quote from: Robo

It's the "other" end.

A-ha!  Well, that certainly was not a thing I'd ever seen before -- at least, not on bees!    :oops:

-- Kris

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: beemaster on April 07, 2005, 03:30:23 pm

I imagine that (like with any guy) if Drones knew THAT would fall off when mating,  it would be pretty hard to find volunteers.

Of course at that point, I think we would welcome falling from the sky to our death   :idea:

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Ed M. on April 07, 2005, 03:48:40 pm

Quote from: Bee Boy

Dude nice pics!!!! Did you use a digital camera?

Yes they were all shot with a Sony DSC-F717 In Macro Mode

The first one I locked the exposure and the focus on the white hive and then rotated the camera to where the bees were and used the onboard flash to lighten the bees and darken the background. Unfortunately there is no manual focus in macro mode on this camera and you have to use auto focus when you're in macro mode so the focus was just a guess, but it worked out pretty well.

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: Ed M. on April 07, 2005, 04:20:01 pm

Quote from: Kris^

Quote from: Robo

It's the "other" end.

A-ha!  Well, that certainly was not a thing I'd ever seen before -- at least, not on bees!    :oops:

-- Kris

The actual bridge between the drone and the queen is his extended male organ apparatus (endophallus) shown in the second photo, which is tightly plugged into the sting chamber of the receptive female.  His explosive ejaculation ruptures his male organ apparatus and propels semen into the queen's oviduct.  In addition to the forceful ejaculation of semen, the terminal bulb at the tip of the endophallus remains in the queen’s female organ until the next drone finds and mates with her. The last plug is thought to be brought back to the hive as a sign of the breeding

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: tejas on April 28, 2005, 11:36:01 pm

Ed,

I saved the first picture to my computer and applied it as my computers background picture and it looks great.

Title: Air Traffic Control
Post by: eivindm on April 29, 2005, 04:17:15 am

Quote from: tejas

Ed,

I saved the first picture to my computer and applied it as my computers background picture and it looks great.

I'm sorry to inform that Ed passed away on April 12, 2005. His wife posted this message (http://beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?p=14075#14075) in an other thread where she informs us about this. May he rest in peace.