Some macro shots I did today (lizards and bee)

Oli4D wrote:

GeorgianBay1939 wrote:

Oli4D wrote:

Martin.au wrote:

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Thank you. Yeah I just wish the wings of the bee would be visible... but well, not enough fast shutter I guess.

About the lizards... gooood question, I'm not sure but I think most of them are these guys here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_muralis

They can be found here in Zürich where I live close to water and on stones.

Greutzi!

I like all of your shots, plus the great dragon/damselflies at your flickr site .

Yes, you are "in the box" regarding stopping that wing motion of the bee. It is a great image as it is.

Maybe another stop faster would stop the slight motion blur of the pollen particles but very difficult to stop the wings. So far I find that ONLY in direct sunlight on very bright days do I have a chance to do that. (In some cases I can get up to f5.6, 1/4000, ISO 200).

I haven't tried any auxiliary lighting. You?

I shoot RAW and sometimes underexpose by reducing shutter interval ... tricky because when I bring it back up in LR, at high ISO, the darks are noisy. Always a compromise, eh?

Nice work!

Tom

Grüezi Tom

Thanks a lot. Yeah I know a bit faster would have been good to freez it even more... but well, I think I was lucky with that shot anyway

No I have not tried any additional lights so far.

But thanks for the idea with the underexposing... I might try that.

Kind regards, Oliver

First, thanks for the spelling correction!  My Swiss-German is oral, having learned it from some of my Swiss relatives over the years.

I have a pair of cheap, LCD panels that have their own batteries and which I can either hand hold or attach to the tripod mount ... or to the tripod itself.  I haven't tried them yet.   I tend NOT to use the tripod when shooting bugs though, as I am not fast enough to move the camera on the ball head when the wee beastie moves around.

I am looking forward to seeing some bugs SOON!   It has been a long winter here and I am getting a bit tired of snow shots!

Yeah, I find no problem getting a stop of speed by shooting a stop under exposed and pulling it up in Lightroom.  I tend to use the spot meter when shooting bugs and watch my LV histogram.  I chimp a lot and often preshoot to find a good exposure before the bug arrives at the flower. Always a compromise!

Have fun!

t

Tom