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Finally! Portraits of Bees!

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Frank Phillips

Frank Phillips

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I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying. Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
--

Fantastic shots. Great color and light.
  1. 1 rule in life...Things change.
 
NT means no text
 
Those are shots to be very proud of!
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
--
Good, bad and mostly glad!
 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
 
Those are dangerous shots - they make me want to guy buy stuff ;-)

John
 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
--
:)atwl
http://www.imageevent.com/atwl77



Canon: E0S-1OD, Can. 5Omm F1,8II, Tam. 28-3OOXR
Olympus: C-75OUZ, TC0N-17, WC0N-O7, MC0N-4O, FL-4O
 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Click to expand...
Did the flash warm them up enough to start moving?

Back in high school, I put together a setup that achieved 9:1 magnification, I think. I used a 400mm preset lens to which I affixed my normal 50mm lens reversed in front of it. You can get reversing rings for this purpose, but the combination I was using, 72mm to 49mm was not available, so I used rubber bands.

For lighting, I handheld a flash contected via the sync cord.

It was a very cumbersome setup, but it worked.
 
As you know, Victor, the MP-E will go to 5x very easily, but when you're at that magnification, you often can't frame the shot you want if the bug is "big" like the bumblebee. I did a few shots at 3x, but it was too much to make it recognizable. I can't imagine shooting anything bigger than a pinhead with a 9x lens!
Victor Engel said:
Back in high school, I put together a setup that achieved 9:1
magnification, I think. I used a 400mm preset lens to which I
affixed my normal 50mm lens reversed in front of it. You can get
reversing rings for this purpose, but the combination I was using,
72mm to 49mm was not available, so I used rubber bands.
Click to expand...
--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

 
Frank Phillips said:
As you know, Victor, the MP-E will go to 5x very easily, but when
you're at that magnification, you often can't frame the shot you
want if the bug is "big" like the bumblebee. I did a few shots at
3x, but it was too much to make it recognizable. I can't imagine
shooting anything bigger than a pinhead with a 9x lens!
Click to expand...
That's true. I don't have any serious pictures resulting from this experiment. One I could think of would be aphids. My photos consisted primarily of plant parts (seeing the cellular structure of a flower petal is interesting). I guess I'd also add an additional focusing technique to your list: moving the subject. That's essentially the way my setup worked. The contraption was so combersome, I left it still and as solid as I could make it. Then I moved my subject to the lens.
 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
--
Equipment list in profile.
On the MP3 player: 'The Box' Orbital
http://www.pbase.com/digifan
 
Hi Frank,

I always thought I'm doing something wrong because whenever I made a bee photo the eyes do NOT have this nice pattern I used to see with wasp or other bugs.
Now I see that this seems to be quiet normal.
Regards,
tc

PS: and, as usually, very good work from you. Find below your bees' little sister :)



Frank Phillips wrote:
[...]



--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

 
Frank Phillips said:
I was lucky to get these shots this week...it will freeze here soon
and the bugs will be gone for the year. I got both of these in the
early moring just before they warmed up enough to start flying.
Shot with D60, MP-E macro lens, and MT-24EX flash; top is bumblebee
at 2x...bottom is yellow jacket at 3x.





--
My Extreme Macro Bug Gallery: http://www.frankphillips.com/macro

Ever wondered about the MP-E lens? Read my review here:
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2914.htm

Click to expand...
--
More great bugs Frank.
 
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