Shooting Flying Bees is Hard

The flower patch was in full bloom today. I think we’ve finally seen everything that was in the yard when we bought it crop up (although July and August may still have some surprises). For the bees, however, this is prime pollen season, and they were very excited about it today. So I did what anyone who was in precisely my position and state of mind would do: I grabbed my camera.

Now, I have no idea if I used the right lens. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras is a magnificent lens, but it’s big and you can’t be too close when you focus. Of course, I didn’t WANT to be much closer, and it seemed to agitate the bees, so you never know.

Catching a few that were sitting on the flowers was easy enough:

I’ve got to get a better image plugin for wordpress that overlays things like camera settings.  In the mean time, those turned out alright, but the bees weren’t really moving much.  Here’s what happens when you start to want to shoot them in flight…

They’re out of focus:

Or they’re out of frame:

Or they’re obscured:

But, eventually you get a nice focused Bee Butt:

 

Or a nearly-in-focus maybe this is good enough picture:

Or a really good shot of a bee that’s clearly coming straight for you that’s ALMOST your favorite:

Until, finally, you get an in-focus shot of a nice bee covered in pollen, coming in for a landing.

That’s my favorite.