BBIF... Bumblebee in flight

[Juanito200]

While shooting some flowers this little fella came along. He never would land on a blossom, so I had to try to capture him in flight. My 100-300 apo hunted too much in all the stems, so all are MF. Hope you enjoy, C&C always welcomed. John

[Birma]

Hi John - I think those are pretty good with having to use MF for such a small, and fast, subject. I saw a few bees out while I was doing my flower shots, but I quickly gave up trying to get shots of the bees. I'd really like to get some flower shots with a landed bee, but I suspect it will be a matter of waiting, focused on a flower, for a bee to turn up. They certainly seem to like the lungwort in my garden at the moment.

I seem to remember a couple of other forum members who also had some great bee shots and could even tell the "variety" of bee in question. Perhaps this post will tempt them out ?

[Greg Beetham]

Well I think they are great action shots of a Bumblebee, I've seen the odd one around here and often thought of the possibilities of capturing one, but they seem quite erratic in their motion with sudden sideways movements, I never really hatched a plan for doing so. Plus it helps if you happen to have the camera handy on those rare occasions when one suddenly appears.
I think those are really good.
Greg

[Juanito200]

Thanks guys- I think it is actually a carpenter bee (Xylocopa sp.) Although he never landed he was kind enough to hover a bit occasionally, which really helped me. I'd love to see some other bee shots as well, they are difficult to photo! Though next time I will try to remember to increase ISO, so I can have a faster shutter speed to get the wings better.

[aster]

Hi John,

The bee looks like a dark alien ship that's halted in midflight. My CZ 16-80mm and I weren' so lucky to get such shots this year but I'll be looking around for the early-riser bees in our neghbourhood.

Yildiz