BIF - not what you think!

[therickman]

Beautiful day today. So, I stepped outside with my 50D and ol' cheapo EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 non-USM lens to snap some birds. Unfortunately, I must've scared them away, but there was this very aggressive and protective bee buzzing around my garden. He attacked butterflies, moths, flies, and other bees who came near his area.

Anyway, I figured I'd try to shoot him as he hovered. ISO 800, 1/1600, f/5.6-6.3, manual focus. Jeesh, bees-in-flight is tough!









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[photobug4741]

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Proves you can get great pictures with a Canon 50D without spending BIG bucks for a Canon L type lens. Cool shots.

 

[acer8er]

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Nice pics! He's a fat little bugger isn't he? And his wings must be flapping extremely fast, 1/1600s and the wings are a blur!

 

[TA Barracus]

Great Pics.

That's funny I did almost the same thing on Easter and I thought BIF (Bee in Flight). I was taking pictures of my niece's kids Easter Egg hunting and saw this Bee buzzing around and I decided to take a picture of it. It sure wasn't easy. This was with a Sigma 180mm Macro F3.5 1/250 ISO-400. and some post processing.

 

[Timberland]

Wow, cool stuff Rick!

This is certainly not what I expected. How close were you (and how many attempts did it take to get these results)?

Tim
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[Brian Wadie]

great fun isn't it, you have done well here.

For me its a sort of "Rite of Passage" to shoot a bee or hoverfly in flight at the start of each Bug season

here's one from this year's starter set:

http://www.ephotozine.com/photo/1192216/large

and there are several variations, including "DIFS" (dragons in flight)

here

http://www.pbase.com/oldcanon/closeup_and_macro

like this:

http://www.pbase.com/oldcanon/image/94480904

 

[therickman]

Wow, cool stuff Rick!
This is certainly not what I expected. How close were you (and how
many attempts did it take to get these results)?

Tim

Thanks Tim. I was 4-5 feet away, shooting wide open at between 250-300mm, so you can figure the DoF was really slim. Fortunately, this bugger had a favorite spot in space and I could rely on him to keep coming back to it. I had my lens manually focused on that spot, and every time he buzzed into the frame... click! Yeah, I took probably 200 shots. Of those about 10 were somewhat in focus, and these four were the best.

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[therickman]

Great Pics.

That's funny I did almost the same thing on Easter and I thought BIF
(Bee in Flight). I was taking pictures of my niece's kids Easter Egg
hunting and saw this Bee buzzing around and I decided to take a
picture of it. It sure wasn't easy. This was with a Sigma 180mm
Macro F3.5 1/250 ISO-400. and some post processing.

Nice shot! It ain't easy, is it?!

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Insert obligatory quote here...

http://www.picsure.net