>
> Right now every rain sage in the neighbourhood is in full bloom, as are
>Mexican Bird of Paradise and Yellow Bells, and yet not a single solitary bee
>is to be found. Last year you could hear them from a short distance, but
>now it's dead quiet all day long.
>
This morning I was happy to find a total of five bees around the flowers
on my Texas Sage hedge. One was a large Carpenter Bee, two others were generic
Honey Bees, and then there were a couple of small white bees. Those last ones
became a bit of a curiosity as I had never noticed any before, so I followed
them around with the E-500 and Quantaray 24-40/3.5. That's not the best lens
to use for stalking insects, but I needed to give it a try just to see how well
it would work. Out of a dozen or so photos, a couple came out well, and I was
able to make this enlargement from one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64004640@N03/9423150689/
It really surprised me when I saw the first photo that the thorax and head
were a metallic green. Luckily, the Audobon guide for insects had a photo of a
Virescent Metallic Green Bee (Agapostemon virescens) that looked awfully close,
and by way of the white bands on the abdomen this one is a female.
The Quantaray 24-40/3.5 works well for landscape and flower closeups, but
it's not a good choice for stalking insects as you have to get much too close.
I'll stick with a long telephoto from now on.
Chris
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|