A sure sign of spring

by Jannilynn
(Windsor Ontario Canada)

This was taken on a fairly sunny morning in early April of this year. The bee was still somewhat "dozy", from its long winter nap allowing me to get in really close.

I was in macro and super-macro, hoping to get great detail. I think I succeeded, do you?


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Ahh, animals waking up from their winter slumber are always appealing, even bees!

Jannilynn has chosen the correct setting on her camera for this shot – macro mode. As I have said before, macro these days has come to mean a close up photo, rather than its true definition (click here for a definition of macro).

Nearly all digital cameras have a macro mode. For those who have never found the macro function, it is the setting that looks like a flower on your camera.

The important thing to remember in macro mode is to be aware of your depth of field. Depth of field is the amount of a photo that is in focus. In macro mode, less of your photo will be in focus that you may be used to (click to read more about depth of field). Jannilynn has precisely focussed on the bee – well done there!

So, the camera mode is spot on, the focussing is perfect; is there anything to change?

A couple of suggestions . . . first, there's the angle. Would it have been possible to have photographed this character slightly more head on? He seems quite placid, and moving a few things around in order to get a more head on shot shouldn't have disturbed him too much.

I wouldn't go for a completely head on photo. Aim to get one eye the closest corner of the photo, with the bees' body fading away to one side, and his other eye fading out on the other side.

The other suggestion would be to get some more colour into the photo. I appreciate that this may have been difficult to achieve (and I don't know the conditions Jannilynn was snapping away under), but could this fella have been encouraged onto something more colourful? A nearby flower would have been just perfect.

I don't want to sound too negative because this is a nice photo, and technically very good. So well done Jannilynn, and thanks for submitting!

Ed.
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