Bee on Sunflower

Bee on Sunflower | A bee on a sunflower in summer. | http://www.larslentzphotography.com |... more

by Lars Lentz

Title

Bee on Sunflower

Artist

Lars Lentz

Medium

Photograph

Description

Bee on Sunflower | A bee on a sunflower in summer. | http://www.larslentzphotography.com |

Equipment: Canon T1i (D500), Sigma 18-300, Hoya HRT CIR-PL UV.

Settings: 100 mm, 1/100 s, f/5.6, ISO 500, Program Mode, Spot Metering.

I was photographing the giant sunflowers in the garden, and they were impressive at around ten feet in height. I noticed bees buzzing around and working on them, and I thought it would be so cool to get a shot of one on a sunflower head. They were going from one sunflower to another, making their way around the heads.

Then there was a bee taking his time on one of the heads and it looked like a great shot. The bee was moving, and the wind was blowing, so that made it difficult to get a good shot. The mosquitos were buzzing around me too, and I was waving them off.

But, then the wind calmed down to just a breeze and the bee looked like it posed for me. I took the shot, but my camera was on center-weighted average metering. Everything was dark in the photo. There was too much backlight.

I switched to spot metering and metered off the center of the sunflower head. It was still calm, and the shot looked good. At about the time that I pushed the shutter button, a mosquito bit me. I held steady though and got the shot. All of this happened in less than a minute.

I took a few more shots, but that first one with the spot metering was the keeper. Here it is. I hope you like it.

Uploaded

August 10th, 2015