Bee on Crocus

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 17, 201194 views7 comments

Red-tailed bumble Bee, Bombus ternarius gathering nectar on a crocus. We don't see this specie often and glad it alighted here this spring. I seldom use wide angle settings and am pleased with the results of this use. This is cropped to no more than approx 20% of FF.

Olympus E-5
Olympus 14-54mm F2.8 @14mm
aperture priority
1/200 sec. @ F7.1 -1.0 EV
Fill flash
Center weighted avg. metering
ISO200
auto focus

Large version provided

I thank you for any comments or critiques.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on May 17, 2011 at 2:23 PM

Charlie, do you mean you cropped off 20% or 80%? The detail on the bee is wonderful. I don't know anything about wide angle at this point, but this is great.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on May 17, 2011 at 3:20 PM

This is the full original image with nothing done to it other than conversion from RAW to .jpg. My original posted image is likely less than 20% of this full image.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on May 17, 2011 at 6:27 PM

It stood up really well to the huge crop. Great detail and color

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on May 18, 2011 at 10:03 AM

Hi Charlie,

Very nice colour here and detail did hold up well given the crop. But, as long as one is not cropping an image to below the pixel dimensions at which it is presented (i.e., as long as you're not interpolating or creating pixels in post-processing) - which is 720 pixels wide in this case - then the image should retain its sharpness. This assumes, of course, the original is sharp when viewed at 100% magnification.

To me contrast seems a tad high here, with the result that black-on-black detail is a bit lacking (but it does help make those colours pop!). I'm not sure if the orientation/angle of this presentation is optimal, but given the almost odd angle this bee is using to go at the nectar, I can't really offer a better suggestion how to orient the image.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on May 18, 2011 at 11:05 AM

Hi Brad. I'm going to play with contrast as your suggestion makes logical sense. I tried various angles and this seemed best for me. Insects so often are, what seems to we humans, off balance. I've found that there is seldom much improvement to be had by different orientation.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on May 18, 2011 at 7:03 PM

Great shot! The bumble bee and flower are so sharp. I think bumble bees are very cool. This one looks like its sleeping.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Butch Lama on May 20, 2011 at 11:38 AM

I'm just amazed by the quality of the details even after that much of crop.

Registered on July 23, 2010, 42 Posts, 316 Comments