The last few days the bees in my neighbor’s beehive have beehive swarming in response to the weather’s warming. This sure sign that Spring might really arrive prompted me to experiment with photographing bees in flight. The project is quite challenging due to the small size of the honey bees and the speed with which they fly about. I would appreciate any suggestions you can provide.
I captured the image “Pollen Delivery” with a handheld Canon R5 and Canon RF 100-500mm lens zoomed to 238 mm and stabilized by leaning on a fence. I was about three feet from the hive. The camera was set to Manual, 1/3200sec, f/5.6, ISO (AUTO) was 2500.
A huge challenge was focusing. The bees were swarming in a circle of approximately two feet in diameter. I was about four feet from the hive. There was nothing in the center of the swarm on which to focus so I set the focus manually to about the center of the swirl, and set the camera to servo multiple shots. I took MANY shots in the hope that a bee would fly into zone of focus during an exposure. Most of the images were subpar, but a few showed promise. “Pollen Delivery” was imported into and edited in Lightroom Classic. A virtual copy was cropped and denoised . The bee was masked with an “object” mask and the basic tonal and detail settings were adjusted. The face was masked with a “brush” mask and adjusted to bring out more detail. Finally the mask of the bee was intersected with a radial mask which was then inverted. The exposure and tone were then adjusted to provide a vignette.
5 comments posted
Pamela Hoaglund
Wow Judith, you really took on an almost impossible task. Having never tried this I'm only going to speculate as to what may have helped you be successful. You were successful in catching a bee with a pollen sack. The bee is very soft from either post processing or just not in focus. I don't know if using auto focus set at animal/bird detection if the camera would have been able to detect a bee and focus on it. I think my only suggestion is to keep trying. I will look forward to what others in the group suggest. Posted: 03/12/2025 15:10:03
Sharon Prislipsky
The difficulty of this type of shot cannot be overestimated. I find the pollen sacks these tiny creatures casry absolutley amazing. I think you have made a very severe crop which - even if the bee was tack sharp to being with - has resulted in a significant softening. My guess is that your focus point was not actually ob the bee so it may not have been in focus to start with. You might havemore success capturing a shot of a bee when it is hovering near a flower. Good luck. Posted: 03/13/2025 11:36:54
Polly Krauter
You really picked a challenging subject! I like to photograph bees but one in flight is really tough to capture. We sometimes have carpenter bees in the area. They are huge and slow so I have a better chance at getting a shot, however I'm still waiting for a good one. You might consider shooting bees while they are gathering pollen on a flower as Sharon suggested. They are still quick, but you might get one not flying about so fast. Good luck! Posted: 03/16/2025 13:09:28
Tom Brott
This was a good try. Tiny creatures with a big lens is really a challenge. I have found that using the auto focus is the best way to go when you are 6 to 7 feet away. In Costa Rica I tried getting close up shots of leaf cutter ants with their load. I was on the ground 3 feet from their path and used manual focus. I was able to get some fair images but was also pre-focused on an object in their path and waited for the ants to pass that spot. Although the ants move fairly fast it is no where the speed of the bees. Find a flower or a frequented area and pre-focus on that area and shot, shot shot. Posted: 03/16/2025 15:43:02
Mike Cohen
I agree with everyone's comments. If I was taking this on I would use auto focus and choose a background, as you did, far enough behind the subject to increase the odds that the camera would lock on the target. And, I would take lots of shots. 1/3200 would have rendered the bee sharp, but if light permitted I would go faster. Posted: 03/20/2025 16:21:30
