“Honey bee” by David Hall

There is far too much going on in this photo! The focus is on the bee? If so, the flower in the forground is blocking it. If the file size is large enough, some judicious cropping would make a difference.

The bee is nicely in focus. I like the lines of red around him and the flower above. There are some really great parts to this one and I believe that, file size permitting, a close up of his eyes and upper body would be great. I love his face, his eye and proboscis and the wings offer very nice detail.

I know that reshooting the photo is out of the question and doing anything like it in-studio is also. You can only take the time allowed by nature to do the best in-camera work you can. That is what sets good photography apart from snapshots. That and a lot of luck!

thanks. the camera is only 6mp so i cant crop it too far and have a decnt size print unfortunately. that damn flower is in the way isnt it! :)

with nature you sometimes have to take what you can get.

Hey David – very good attempt given that Bees are usually hard to shoot. A few things – black background, I know you can’t always avoid it, but in most cases it doesn’t do a lot for macro shots. Personally, I don’t mind black backgrounds, but other macro photographers consider it a cardinal sin. I guess to each their own.

Secondly, it’s a tad soft – eye is just slightly OOF. Only slightly.

Thirdly, composition isn’t the best, again, since Bees are so hard to shoot, I can forgive you here, it’s hard to get the suckers in the frame!!!

Lastly, image is too busy, the flower stamen (I think that’s right) are too distracting from the Bee.

Other than that, it’s a good image, a good start.

Dave

PS 6mp is fine imho. I shoot for nearly 2 years with a 8 year old 4mp Canon 1D.

Hi Dave, I have to agree with lexis, there is a bit much going on in this photo. I’m not a professional by any means, but I have lived by one easy rule when it comes to photos. K.I.S.S. = keep it simple stupid, (stupid being me, I’m not calling anyone stupid!!!) Good luck with your future endevors!!

thanks folks :)

Your focus is right on, I’m not sure how others want you to crop this, but I like the flower in it, it’s natural not artifically contrived.