Digger IV
Technique: I found a spot in my Lavender bush where I could bait the bees with some artificial nectar and photograph them with the sun at my back. Fortunately the angle of the sun was high enough so that I could shadow the subject and not the background. I needed the natural light to keep the background from being black, and the flash to freeze as much motion as possible in the subject. Lots of deleted frames due to a light breeze and a less than cooperative bee.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 200 with highlight tone priority) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (1x) + a diffused MT-24EX (both flash heads on the Canon flash mount, E-TTL metering with -1 2/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.
Digger IV
Technique: I found a spot in my Lavender bush where I could bait the bees with some artificial nectar and photograph them with the sun at my back. Fortunately the angle of the sun was high enough so that I could shadow the subject and not the background. I needed the natural light to keep the background from being black, and the flash to freeze as much motion as possible in the subject. Lots of deleted frames due to a light breeze and a less than cooperative bee.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 200 with highlight tone priority) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (1x) + a diffused MT-24EX (both flash heads on the Canon flash mount, E-TTL metering with -1 2/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.