Abuzz Over Bees in the Trees

It's been a strange transition to Spring here in Rochester. There were a couple of 80 degree days in March, then more snow in April, then warmer, then rain and even a few flakes in May. The trees and many other plants bloomed early and when the flowers come out and the birds start singing and the bees are buzzing I want to take pictures!

It happens every year - I can't help it.

Bee In The Maple: f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 200

By mid-March the maple tree in my back yard was in full bloom and lots of bees were attracted to the flowers. I grabbed my camera and was trying to figure out how best to catch one of them. It was a bit cloudy with some great, diffuse light, but my initial shots were coming out a bit dark. I had just finished reading about using aperture and shutter speed to control subject and background exposure when using a flash so I thought I'd try to slightly over-expose the background so that the bee and flowers would stand out.

It took a few tries, but but I managed to get a couple of shots that I think worked out like I wanted. I also shot with a relatively wide open aperture that also helped blur the background - you can just see the reddish blur of other flowers in the background. These add a little interest and keep the shot from looking like it was taken in a studio. The specular highlights on the bee from the flash are pretty cool, especially the hexagonal one on the compound eye.

This shot worked because I read about a technique, remembered it and then used that technique when I ran into a situation where it was applicable. In this case I needed to do something different because the background would have been too cluttered with more tree branches, other insects buzzing about and the rest of the world behind the shot. Now the challenge will be to remember how I did this and to keep using it where it works to simplify a shot and bring real focus to my subject. That seems to be a big challenge for me; I am learning lots of new things as I work to improve my pictures, but I haven't used them enough for them to become second nature for me yet. I guess that means I'll just have to take more pictures!