Bumbleed feeding, 1.5x, with a question

paddler4

This was one of my first tries with extension tubes, so it is not quite what I had hoped (needs stacking, I think, but I was not steady enough). It left me with an interesting question. Most bumblebees I have photographed look like the one Phil just posted: they have black hair between the eyes. Not this one, who was also a lot larger than most of the bumblebees in my garden. I forgot to check the abdomen to see if it was a carpenter bee, but I think they have hairy faces too. Anyone know what this might be? One clue might be that it acted as though it was not long for this world.

Dan

GOLDENORFE

very hard to shoot black bugs,light looks a little harsh.
dof is always a problem head on.
does look like it could be a carpenter bee, eyes look too big for a bumble.
any more shots of this one?

paddler4

GOLDENORFE wrote:

very hard to shoot black bugs,light looks a little harsh.
dof is always a problem head on.
does look like it could be a carpenter bee, eyes look too big for a bumble.
any more shots of this one?

Phil,

Thanks. No additional shots other than a few more face-on that were not as good.

Re lighting: I agree, and the harsh direct sunlight did not help. It was for the DOF problem that I thought about stacking, but at the angle at which I was positioned, I couldn't hold the camera steady enough to get usable additional shots aligned well enough. More practice needed...

Dan