Bees over flowers

Visiting the Spring Flower Show a while ago, spotted several bumble bees throughout the day feasting on the many flowers basking in the bright sunlight.

Of course had to dive in and get a few shots of these insects on the colorful flowers.

Bumble bees are interesting photography subjects and a more manageable challenge compared to regular bees or wasps, this not only due to their larger size but mostly because they are more docile.

Love this particular shots, the bright colorful flowers offer a nice contrast to the bee.

When trying to photograph any such insects, caution is advised as you would not want to unsettle them and get stung.

Used the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens on both days for the hanami and flower show.

While the Canon 100mm macro lens would be more suited to capture bumble bees up close with tack sharp detail, that would have required me to use a tripod and alas, these insects aren’t that willing models either.

Surprisingly spotted some bumble bees when I visited the Japanese garden a few weeks ago. Braving the colder weather, a few of them were out and about on the cherry blossoms. Though it was more difficult to manage a decent photo with the overcast weather.

Thanks to the excellent sunlight conditions due to the gorgeous weather on the day I attended the Spring Flower Show, even with polarizing filter got sufficiently short shutter times and managed to get in close enough to capture enough detail of these fascinating insects.

For the other people about, it must have been a humorous sight to see someone chase a bee with their DSLR.

You can see more photography here or on my Flickr photostream.