At the last shot you'd probably be better off with a smaller aperture. This way you could slightly front-focus and get the flower the bee is flying to just about as sharp as the bee itself - this would really help the composition. And the bokeh seems a bit harsh - which lens did you use? Please don't take it offensive - I personally think constructive critic is better than just "Oh wow. Nice pictures." Otherwise nice shots, nice timing and nice colors!
That last shot is my pick of the bunch. The more I look at it, the flower in front of the bee isn't actually in front of it, otherwise it would've been in focus. I'm amazed (impressed) that the bee is actually focused quite well with very little motion blur on the wings... that is an incredibly hard shot to pull off as bees hover 3 dimensionally and seldom stay in one spot for too long. I would say the flowers "in-line" with the bee's flight path are actually those two below it. It's probable that the bee either took off from those, or is about to land on them. There's nothing wrong with the lens bokeh looking at the out of focus flowers on the upper right hand of the frame. It's soft enough and pleasing. The perceived harshness is most likely being caused by the very rough texture of the branch itself. No other lens is going to get rid of that and stopping down to a smaller aperture to envelope the flower in front of the bee within the focus field, will only make that branch bokeh worse. Davect01, I would consider approaching a Honey or Propolis products company with that last photo. That photo has commercial value. Most bees are shot on-flower and very seldom in-flight (usually in controlled studio boxes with strobes). One possible way of improving the composition is to further blur the flower in front of the bee in post processing. There is no practical way of revisiting that shot to improve it from post or even pre analysis. A split second moment like that cannot be planned to perfection.
Thanks guys. With the bee shots you only have a few seconds to take the picture. And the darn things just don't take stage direction well. I kept telling her to hover a bit more to the right, but she did not listen.
@Dioptrick: I'm pretty sure the flower in front of the bee is actually in FRONT of it. And I'm also pretty sure the bee is flying to this flower. But hey, here's room for imagination. As for the bokeh, I know this kind of background makes every bokeh seems to be harsh, but it's a little bit more harsh than it could be. But yeah, it IS a great photo, and I know bees aren't the easiest thing to get into focus, so it's just about as good as it could be. My critic was on a very high level - just about for the difference of "very good" to "perfect".
Thanks, I took about 20 images, with only about four that were descent. I hope to get better as time goes on.
The image of the bottle brush (image 3) is very striking and vivid that it really pops out, it's almost like 3D.
Best Springtime shot I have see. What lens and settings? We have to wait a bit here in Colorado for bees and blooms.
Love the background colours and the pentagon bokeh patterns on the first pic! They remind me sequins and brown sugar crystals... really pleasant for me, I can look at it all day. Interesting red flowers (last two pics)... do you know the name?
Not sure with most of them, but with the last one I think it's a Willow tree, we call em' Bottle Brush here in oz.
