1st try on Bee shot and insect for ID

[NovJoe]

I was lucky to have this bee buzzing around me first thing when I visited SBG yesterday late afternoon. Not sure of it's ID though.

Dun disturb me... I'm finding my nectar...


Bee: Suspicious guy holding a black box... hmmm..


Insect (Unknown ID)


Needs advice for improvements. Thanks!

[vespa_bicolor]

The bee is a male Xylocopa confusa (a carpenter bee)

[NovJoe]

Thanks for the ID!

[ex0rzist]

Haha I've also got this similar shot also taken at SBG.
See mine at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex0rzis...7611019754511/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex0rzis...7611019754511/

[NovJoe]

Originally Posted by ex0rzist Haha I've also got this similar shot also taken at SBG. See mine at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex0rzis...7611019754511/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex0rzis...7611019754511/

Hahaha... So you were there on Thursday as well?

[ex0rzist]

Originally Posted by NovJoe Hahaha... So you were there on Thursday as well?

No, i shot this sometime last year but same species of bee

[Fallenphoenix]

Originally Posted by NovJoe I was lucky to have this bee buzzing around me first thing when I visited SBG yesterday late afternoon. Not sure of it's ID though. Dun disturb me... I'm finding my nectar... Bee: Suspicious guy holding a black box... hmmm.. Insect (Unknown ID) Needs advice for improvements. Thanks!

How did u focus on the bee? Ai servo or ai focus? It's a pretty good focus... the probability of me getting the bee focus on flight is around 1%...sigh.

[NovJoe]

Originally Posted by Fallenphoenix How did u focus on the bee? Ai servo or ai focus? It's a pretty good focus... the probability of me getting the bee focus on flight is around 1%...sigh.

For me, I do one shot focus so I have to trace the flight of the bee before the shot. Usually, the bee like this one will go back to the same place. What I did was to spend about 20 minutes there waiting for it to come back to around the same place and use higher shutter to snap it. Focus wise, I do manual focus as I find it hard to follow through a bee's flight using AF AI Servo as it's like running through a "S" circuit with the bee's flight, which is unlike those predictable fellows like birds and sports.

Total, I managed to snap about 12 shots and only got 3 decent focused shots .

[Fallenphoenix]

Originally Posted by NovJoe For me, I do one shot focus so I have to trace the flight of the bee before the shot. Usually, the bee like this one will go back to the same place. What I did was to spend about 20 minutes there waiting for it to come back to around the same place and use higher shutter to snap it. Focus wise, I do manual focus as I find it hard to follow through a bee's flight using AF AI Servo as it's like running through a "S" circuit with the bee's flight, which is unlike those predictable fellows like birds and sports. Total, I managed to snap about 12 shots and only got 3 decent focused shots .

thanks!

[NovJoe]

No problem .

[B-setting]

Originally Posted by NovJoe For me, I do one shot focus so I have to trace the flight of the bee before the shot. Usually, the bee like this one will go back to the same place. What I did was to spend about 20 minutes there waiting for it to come back to around the same place and use higher shutter to snap it. Focus wise, I do manual focus as I find it hard to follow through a bee's flight using AF AI Servo as it's like running through a "S" circuit with the bee's flight, which is unlike those predictable fellows like birds and sports. Total, I managed to snap about 12 shots and only got 3 decent focused shots .

wow! i wish i have your patience!

[NovJoe]

If you happened to chance by something which you desired to shoot, you will start to learn to build patience in order to snap the subject .

Some photographers can wait many hours just to compose and picture something so mine is still considered small case only .