Bees In Flight

As I explained in my last post I was working hard to catch bees in an interesting pose in the flowers when I decided to set a more difficult challenge for myself.  I wanted to see if I could catch a bee in flight.  I decided to start with them on the flowers because then I would have a reference point to lock my focus on.  The problem is that bees take off really quickly and if you are going to get a picture where you can see any detail you have to get really close so they fly out of frame very quickly.  There were no bees at all in my first 10 pictures because they had flown out of frame before I could react and press the button.  I began to watch them more closely and noticed that they would generally rub their front legs together in a particular way before they took off.  This little warning combined with the realization that I would have to frame the shot a little wider and depend partially on cropping to get a closeup shot meant that I got some decent shots.  It was still really difficult to keep the bees in focus because they never flew straight up from the flower so they were often flying out of the plain of focus.  I tried to deal with this by stopping down my aperture and it helped but the bees are still not really sharp.  The other thing that I really like about this photograph, as opposed to the other two below is the fact that there is such a strong sense of place.  The background, while blurred enough to not be distracting, helps us understand where we are and makes the bee seem bigger. 

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

The Bee spots me as he comes in for a landing.

Bees lifting off from a flower.

Into The Sun

A Great Blue Heron at Neck Point, Nanaimo flies off into the sun. Canon EOS 7D EF 70-300mm at 244mm f/11 1/200 ISO 100The great rush of air on the first downbeat of the wings pushes out past me as the heron lifts off.  It is a large gangly thing that it seems should not fly... until you see it in the air.  Then it is all grace and power full of life that not just lives in the air but belongs there.  Everything about it from the curve of its wing to the arc in its neck speaks of a supple elegance that belongs in the skies. 

This morning I went off to Neck Point with my notebook and my camera.  I could feel the day’s heat beginning to rise as I walked along the shore.    A lady who was walking by pointed out a heron standing  just off shore.  The sun was was already getting high and the light wasn’t great so I decided to expose for a silhouette instead of trying to get a standard exposure.  I needed a small aperture to put the bird into silhouette but I also wanted the sun sparkling on the water to go out of focus.  Fortunately the depth of field on a long telephoto lens is far more limited than on a wide angle so even at f/11 I got a sparkly out of focus glow from the water.  The tendency of a long lens to compress distances in the image also makes it look as though the water is rising up in the background. I was inspired to produce this image by an ebook which I am currently reading.  It is called "Finding Focus" and it is an excellent discussion of focus, depth of field, and the impact of focal length on your images.  Nicole Young writes it and she does excellent work; it is only $5.00 and there is huge value there. 

-Russell Berg 

Flight

A Great Blue Heron takes to the skies near Newcastle Island. Canon EOS 7D EF 70-300mm at 100mm f/5 1/2000 ISO 100 -1ev

The heron stretches out its wings, slowly at first into that rushing of air and it lifts-leaps off the rock and into the air.  It’s neck drops into that familiar curve as it reaches for the skies and I am shown the perfect grace of an animal in its element.

I had spent most of an afternoon following a Great Blue Heron around Newcastle Island. And the bird finally took flight and headed off into the distance. The afternoon skies had darkened and the bird and the exposure that I needed to freeze the motion of the bird’s wings almost left the bird in silhouette.  I liked the way that the underside of the tips of the wings have gone almost to full black.  There is almost a sense of saying goodbye, of a sad parting in the muted colour cast and  content of the image.