Shooting Bumblebees

As a child and young photographer I always thought I would be a professional when I could successfully shoot a macro of a bumblebee. They were small, fast moving targets that in my eyes, only pros could capture. Over the past few years I have steadily improved to a point where I am reasonably satisfied with my results. There is always room for improvement, but I know now that there is only minor tweaks needed.

This is one of my first bumblebee shots - good depth of field, reasonably sharp and good colour... but not yet perfect!

For some reason I was extremely proud of this shot... no idea why! haha. Poor composition takes away from the decent sharpness and clarity.

This photo was taken this spring. None of them were as sharp as I would like ( I blame it on the breeze! :p ) so I added a blur to the outer edges of the photo to make the centre sharper in contrast. Good lighting and colour make up for the clarity.

This photo - taken over the summer blew me away when I looked at it on my computer. The depth of field and clarity were both strong as well as the composition. The colour is soft and there is no direct sunlight to give harsh highlights or shadows. One of my favourites!

This one was taken a few weeks after the last one, and here I have gradutated to a flying bee! It is not as clear as the others, which is to be expected, but would have been a nice feature anyways. The depth of field leaves a simple background. This was taken in a greenhouse so there was no direct sunlight here either.

These last two photos were taken the same evening. The sun was already behind the trees and it was approaching the Golden Hour. I sat back and zoomed in, which is how I tend to create my depth of field, and focused on the blooms with bees on them. I cropped down further on the computer in order to create the best composition possible. This one is a bit overexposed ont he yellow parts of the bee, leading to a loss of detail, but still sharp.

This is one of my all-time favourite photos. Not only is it sharp with lots of detail, but it has good soft lighting, deep depth of field and great colours. The clarity is what made this photo for me.. you can see virtually every hair!

Taking photos of bees is difficult, but patience and practice will get you the results you are looking for! Just keep trying. :)