Drone fly hover and honey bee

Lord Vetinari

Some recent shots of a drone fly hoverfly and my first honey bee of 2014. Both feeding on sugar/honey syrup on camellia leaves.
Brian V.

Stumblebum

Brian you make it look easy! #3, #4 and #5 are just out of this world. Do you use extension tubes along with your lens? Tripod? What lens? Please share! Cheers!

Lord Vetinari

Stumblebum wrote: »

Brian you make it look easy! #3, #4 and #5 are just out of this world. Do you use extension tubes along with your lens? Tripod? What lens? Please share! Cheers!

Thanks SB.
No extension tubes as I'm using a canon MPE-65 lens for these shots. I did used to use extension tubes often in combination with a reversed 50mm lens on the front of the macro lens.
Not using a tripod, I'm actually holding the leaf the bug is on in my left hand and resting the camera lens on the same hand. This stabilises the camera and mechanically links you to the bug. You can see my finger under the leaf in the shot below of the same bee.
Brian V.

Stumblebum

Thanks Brian! Much appreciated! At the time I made the purchase, I didn't know about magnification factor enough. I did ask some people and the way Canon was touting 1:1 magnification it just sounded that would be better. So even though the price is same, I got the 100mm IS AF lens. It is good as it is dual purpose and quality is okay, but to get magnification you have to use extension tubes. Furthermore, AF hunts a lot and at some point one has to switch to MF anyway. So that advantage is also not as critical. Oh well, still good lens and need to get better at making things happen! Cheers!

Lord Vetinari

Stumblebum wrote: »

Thanks Brian! Much appreciated! At the time I made the purchase, I didn't know about magnification factor enough. I did ask some people and the way Canon was touting 1:1 magnification it just sounded that would be better. So even though the price is same, I got the 100mm IS AF lens. It is good as it is dual purpose and quality is okay, but to get magnification you have to use extension tubes. Furthermore, AF hunts a lot and at some point one has to switch to MF anyway. So that advantage is also not as critical. Oh well, still good lens and need to get better at making things happen! Cheers!

I still use a normal 1:1 lens for larger subjects such as butterflies, flowers and dragonflies etc so think you need both.
Brian v.

Stumblebum

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

I still use a normal 1:1 lens for larger subjects such as butterflies, flowers and dragonflies etc so think you need both.
Brian v.

Thanks Brian! That is actually great to hear because flowers and butterflies and grasshoppers is what I had in mind! Love the fact that you are generous with teaching! Will bug you further in future! Want to get better with what I have and invest in other one maybe at later time!

DeeBug

Brian,superb as usual!

Davy

Lord Vetinari

DeeBug wrote: »

Brian,superb as usual!

Davy

Thanks Davy
Brian v.

GOLDENORFE

A bee in January! I only see a couple a year in my garden lol
Superb hover shots

Lord Vetinari

GOLDENORFE wrote: »

A bee in January! I only see a couple a year in my garden lol
Superb hover shots

Thanks Phil,
I 've seen a few more honey bees during the last year than previous years. The one I photographed obviously went back to the hive and told a few others because when I checked about 15 mins later there were a couple of puzzled bees flying around the shrub trying to work out where the honey was supposed to be.

Brian v.