Closed Theme Spring Explosions

Dalantech said:

I chased this semi-active Long Horned Bee as it moved around a flower and when it would pause I'd look for a way to compose it. Just out of the frame, to the left, I'm holding on to that stem with my left hand and I'm resting the lens on that same hand to help keep the scene steady. Having the camera and the subject on the same "platform" gives me a lot of control over the framing and where I want the area of acceptable focus to be. I focused on the leading edge of the bee's mandible and then twisted my wrist to lay the depth over as much of the critter's face as I could. It's harder for me to explain it than to do it, I've built up a lot of muscle memory shooting macro hand held these fifteen years.

Tetralonia malvae, male.

Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (over 1x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Sharpen AI and Clarity in that order. I used an artificial flower to keep the background from being black.

View attachment 15537Long Horned Bee III by John Kimbler, on Flickr

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