Retired Electrical Engineer, Mushroom farmer, nature lover, macro photographer, native bee enthusiast.

Camera equipment

Canon 70D for Macro using Canon EF 100mm 1:2.8 Macro USM 1:1 and Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EXII and Raynox M250 clips to front of ring flash

Canon 60D for Birds using Canon Zoom EF 100-400mm 1:4.5-5.6 IS II USM

Samsung A8 phone when I don't have the heavy gear.

For birds and bees best advice is get as close as you can,... then get closer.

For macro photography:-

I use auto focus until I get close enough for 1:1 then I use manual focus, set 1:1 and move the camera in and out for focus.

Settings are Aperture priority to set f-stop between f/18 to f/22. Settings lower than these will progressively reduce the depth of focus. These settings can be controversial. High f-stop numbers can cause degradation by light diffraction around the edges of the aperture. Note that the higher the f-stop number the smaller the aperture and the greater the ratio of circumference/ area, ie more edge to bend the light. For viewing on a computer this degradation is not noticeable at the f-stop settings I use.

I set the camera to use a fixed shutter speed of 1/250th second. The flash is considerably faster than this.

I use flash even in bright sunlight. Removes shadows. One disadvantage of ring flash is circular reflections from shiny surfaces. I put up with that.

I use spot metering and 200 ISO.

I don't use RAW (too much processing)

Where possible I try to tell a story in the comments and posting relevant photos in the comment box. This can be a bit fiddly but worth it. If you don't know how to do this send me an email and I will send you a set of instructions (I had to ask somebody how to do it).