gstephens3 Loc: Northwest Georgia

Bright day - fuzzy bee - shooting on a hill. I think maybe I should have shot a little more at an angle. This place was beautiful but none of my shots turned out like I wanted. How can I get clearer shots of bees/butteflies in these settings?
Canon EOS 7D f/8 1/200 Focal length 30 mm; No flash
Metering mode Pattern; Exposure - 0 step

treadwl Loc: South Florida

First decide what you are trying to capture---the garden, the single flower, the bee??? If it is the bee---you have to get closer to the bee. If it is the flower (one of them) get closer to the flower. If it is the garden back up.

That 30mm lens is better suited to broader views (like the entire garden)

Just a thought. . .

Larry

ggiaphotos Loc: Iowa

There is a lot to look at in the picture, I didn't notice the bee until I enlarged the entire picture. The focus is soft. As Larry said, pick out something to be the subject of the picture.

gordnanaimo Loc: Vancouver Island

I'm with treadwl. That is the wrong lens for just about eveything. It appears to be a prime 30mm only usefull for landscapes and few of those. You need to get a 24-105 zoom and then decide what you are shooting. You have too much in your picture. If you are going for the bee you need a macro lens. But still a nice snap shot of flowers all the same. Your depth of feild needs addressing as well as your rule of thirds.

gstephens3 Loc: Northwest Georgia

Thank you. I wanted the bee but didn't want to trespass. I guess this is where a macro 100 lens would come in handy?

gstephens3 Loc: Northwest Georgia

Thanks

gstephens3 Loc: Northwest Georgia

Thanks. I am saving for the macro lens. Almost there. That was my primary target and he wouldn't hold still. I keep forgetting the rule of thirds. Thanks for the reminder.

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

If you couldn't get very close to the bee for fear of trespassing, then a 100mm macro probably would not have given you what you wanted either. The small subject would have been too far away. In this case a longer zoom like 70-200 or 100-400 would have worked better. With the macro you would have needed to be much closer to the subject, like 12-15 inches or so.

gstephens3 Loc: Northwest Georgia

So if I am at least 20 feet away, what macro length should I invest in?

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

a macro won't help you at that distance. A macro is for use up close, usually within 24 inches. At 20 feet or so you would need a telephoto like I mentioned earlier. That will bring distant objects up closer. For the shot you want you would need something like a 100-400mm zoom lens. the best thing to do is to rent or borrow a lens to see if it will do what you want it for.To get a frame filling image of a bee at 20 feet is almost an impossibility if you want a close up image of the bee you must get close with a macro lens.

Al FR-153 Loc: Chicago Suburbs

Gina, I hope I don't sound harsh here, but you are in need of a 'concept adjustment'. To shoot a bee with a macro lens, you will need to be INCHES from it, not feet. I have a 100mm macro (Canon L) and can tell you to get a good photo of a bee, I was a little over a foot away. Then, when you catch a good photo, you can crop it even closer.

If you want to catch shots of bees, you have to get in there with them. Easier said than done, if you are allergic to bee sting.

Honey Bee on Cone Flower


Bumble Been In Flight

sudzmonn Loc: here , there , everywhere

very informative post .

MtnMan Loc: ID

Beautiful illustrations of your message!

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

In the picture you posted, if that was a 30mm lens, a 100mm would have let you get just the cluster of blossoms where the bee was. And then if you had access to get closer, you could have gotten close enough to get great pics of the insides of the flowers, or the bee itself!

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Let's see if I may be of some help. Here I have posted 2 photos. Neither one was done with a macro lens. The first one was shot the other day with a 28mm wide angle prime lens (no zoom). I was about 2ft. away and no trespassing issues since it was my yard.

The 2nd photo was taken a bit earlier using a 200mm zoom at about 10 ft. away. Both of these photos were enlarged and cropped in photoshop.

The others are right. At 20 ft., even with a 300mm lens which I also have, it would be near impossible to enlarge a photo such as these to this size.

I also have a 30mm macro which I rarely use because it has such a shallow depth of field that it is very difficult to get even a bee entirely in focus. A 100mm macro lens would be a much better choice. The funny thing about the 30mm macro is that it takes great landscape pictures even though everything is flat! Lol. But to a person who knows nothing about photography, the pictures look great!

Now then, I shot both of these pictures in manual mode and I used spot metering.

What I am trying to show here is that you can take a decent close up photo with any lens. You just need to be at a proper focal length as you have found out by now. It just takes practice.

28mm lens F7.1 @ 1/250 sec. ISO 400


200mm zoom lens f5.6 @ 1/1600 sec. ISO 400