Honey bees, close-up

[Alex Wild]

Hello all. Here are a few shots taken from my backyard hives here in Urbana, Illinois:


coming in for a landing

*****

feeding the queen

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portrait of a young queen

*****

foraging

Cheers,

Alex Wild
www.alexanderwild.com

[brac]

If only more people had a first post that looked like that! Great Photo's here and on the website. Welcome to the forum.
Mind telling what your camera setup is?
Brac

Alex, here is a link to a fellow members site. http://nocroppingzone.blogspot.com/

[Alex Wild]

Thanks, Brac! I've been lurking here for over a year and finally thought I should probably post something.

I use a Canon dSLR with various macro lenses & flash units. I explain how I took the top photo (over a 2-week period!) here:

Honey Bee in Flight

Yes- I read Dalantech's blog regularly. He's got some simply spectacular close-in portraits using Canon's MP-E lens.

[tsmullins]

Amazing pics!

[brac]

Alex,
The photo of the ant biting your finger, is amazing! You can see how deep his grasp goes!

Also, I don't see any tri-color bumbles, I could send you some in exchange for a photo.

[rlsiv]

GREAT pics Alex.

How did you get the Young Queen pic on the white background? Thats splendid.

[Alex Wild]

Thanks guys!

The queen-on-white was done by placing her on plain printer paper in a large white box. A strobe fired upward in the box provided an even, diffuse light.

This queen herself was not so good, giving a spotty laying pattern, and the hive was very weak. So instead of killing her when we combined the remains of her colony with a stronger one, I took her away for a studio photography session.

Incidentally, several of we bug photographers are holding a weekend insect photography workshop this September outside of St. Louis. The techniques we'll discuss will be relevant to anyone looking to improve their bee photography. Here's the link:

[Stephen]

Great photos!

[Fernhill]

Outstanding photos Alex. I'm impressed. You should be proud.
Mike

[Dalantech]

Excellent images!