Day 95—From Avian to Apian

I’ve posted lots of bird photos. . . now it’s time for the bees. Bees have been scarce around here in recent years and so this morning when I was photographing my neighbor’s flowering cherry tree I was delighted to find a few honey bees squirreling away pollen.

Honey bees do not stay still for long, however, and they proved to be very difficult to photograph. I used both my “go to” 18-200mm lens and my 70-300mm lens.
I set the autofocus to continuous mode in the hopes of getting one of the elusive creatures in focus but I failed to increase the shutter speed beyond 1/250 which was too slow to stop a bee in flight. The only photos I captured that contained in-focus bees were those in which the bee was on or in a cherry blossom. But my favorite compositions today were those that show movement, even if the main subject was not perfectly in focus.

So with a thumbed nose at my primary blog quest, (getting things in focus) I picked my favorite of the not quite in focus active bee photos today. I regret that it is not in perfect focus but I love the composition. And I learned a very valuable lesson; I haven’t been thinking enough about what result I am seeking (e.g., today a bee in flight in perfect focus) and then making proper camera adjustments before I press that shutter release!