WhiteMill Wonders

Following Saturdays success at shooting small bees on the river meadows near White Mill, I returned on the Sunday.  First I chose to go a different way up the river, and was pleased to find a little bee nectaring on a dandelion.

Bee feeding in flower
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Bee feeding in flower

After taking a couple of shots, the bee flew up and onto a nearby grass stem where it sat a short time.

Bee curled up on leaf
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Bee curled up on leaf

Before flying off again and landing on my background card.

Bee on background card
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Bee on background card

The next subject was a nice Spider sitting in the nettles.  I managed to shoot a 3 shot stack ( the images in this stack combined in Photoshop CC).

3 Shots Stacked of a Spider
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
3 Shots Stacked of a Spider

Then to my delight I found a nice docile bee on top of a flower.  I took some single shots at varying magnification of the bee from about 1x to 5x, the two below being my favourites from the sindle images.

Bee in Yellow
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Bee in Yellow
Bee in Yellow
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Bee in Yellow

As it was so docile, I then decided to take some stacked images ( I do this by gradually moving the lens towards the subject in small increments. These should then overlap enough focual area, to allow them to be merged (Stacked) into one composite image, that has more depth of field (focus) than you would get from a single image ).

These first two were stacked in Helicon Focus after first aligning them in Photoshop CC.

7 Shots stacked of a Bee
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
7 Shots stacked of a Bee
5 Shots stacked of a Bee
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
5 Shots stacked of a Bee

Whereas these next ones were stacked in Photoshop CC.

6 Shots stacked of a Bee
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
6 Shots stacked of a Bee
4 shots stacked of a Bee
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
4 shots stacked of a Bee

The last one is around 4x lifesize.

Moving on back towards where I was the previous day – I found a different type of bee to photograph – this being my favourite of it.

Small Bee in flower
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Small Bee in flower

Lastly and by no means least was my first butterfly image of 2015.  As I only had my MPE with me it meant shooting it close up (@about 1x magnification).

Here are my two best shots of it.

Male Orange Tip
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Male Orange Tip
Male Orange Tip
Canon EOS 650D (65mm, f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO200)
Male Orange Tip

All images taken on Canon 650D with Canon MT-24ex Twin Flash (foam diffuser with background holder), Canon MPE-65mm.  ISO 200 F11.

Map of Location

Car park is here - photos taken from fields along the river, just past the Mill.

Chris

I've been taking macro photography from 2004. I use both Canon film and digital cameras.

2 thoughts on “WhiteMill Wonders

  • April 22, 2015 at 9:52 pm
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    Very nice set. The way you achieve hand held stacking is great

    Reply
    • April 23, 2015 at 7:33 pm
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      Thanks Pete – It is not too difficult if your flash recycles fairly promptly and the subject does not move.

      Reply

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