Just bee cause

This week I took delivery of a new lens, a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro (it allows me to get really close and photograph small objects 1:1)

Microfibre sponge detail Canon 5DMkiv 100mm macro ISO 800 f4.5 1/200

and I decided to set myself a challenge...to try and get a shot of a bumble bee in flight. It proved to be more difficult than I expected.

Canon 5DMkiv 100mm macro ISO 800 f6.3 1/3200

After a couple of dismal failures I did what I should have done in the first place...observe. I stood back and started to watch how these guys go about their business. They don't work the same as run-of-the-mill honey bees. A honey bee tends to hover at the entrance of a flower (briefly) before entering...a bumble bee (the jumbo jet of the bee world) however, just plows straight in. (I guess because of their size, hovering isn't much of an option.) This lack of a hover makes them much more difficult to photograph...there is no real time where they are actually still...except when they have their faces buried in a bloom...and who wants to see a pic of a bumble bee bum?

Canon 5DMkiv 100mm macro ISO 800 f6.3 1/4000

Issues I encountered included; missing the bee in the frame totally (I am trying to keep pretty tight on a relatively small object) and they move quite erratically, totally missing focus (I am trying to keep pretty tight on a relatively small object...depth-of-field is minimal...the closer you get to the subject the less depth you have to work with), motion blur (bees move quickly...especially their wings) and just getting really crappy compositions...I am concentrating on the bee...not the background. So...here are some of the better frames. I'm not totally happy with any of them...it's something I will revisit in the pursuit of an image I really like.