It's early spring here, with temperatures just high enough for the honey bees to fly and collect urgently needed pollen for their brood. Pictures from one and a half weeks ago, all taken at 1:1. I aimed at a consistent perspective, so all square pictures are cropped to 24mm x 24mm, the others kept at full 24mm x 36mm.

Starting out with the natural light and the D-FA 50mm Macro, which I had used in a prior assignment from the bee keeper.

Got some well-filled pockets already. Just a little more and then back - brrr that wind is chilly... Anything worthwhile here? Yeah, looks like there is!

(click for album size)

For 1:1, the 50mm needed a really close working distance. So I switched to the D-FA 100mm WR to get a good detailed shot showing partially filled "pollen baskets", which are the dimples in the wide parts of the rear legs, with some hair to fix the sticky, pressed and moistened pollen.

Oh girls, this will be a looong flight unless there's more left in other flowers than here.

View image in gallery

While this was beautiful light from a slightly hazy sky, there is a slight motion blur, and there was no chance to improve much over f/9 and 1/250s @ISO800 in terms of detail, noise, depth of field. So I gave in and used a flash, first camera mounted with a mini-softbox and the daylight to help with backgrounds.

Well, let's try the other color then! Rear leg brush, abdomen brush, front leg brush then stow it, hush!



This was the point when I realized that my flash didn't fire. Luckily, with ~ +3.5EV exposure lifting in post-processing, the 1/200s at f/11 actually came out nicely detailed. I may rethink the ISO800 on the K-1 ...

Still way too little. Little? Maybe nobody checked in the little ones yet! Let's give this one a gooooood shaaaake:

I know I can fit in even here, I just need to push a little harder


Did it!
Some more here: , grab it , and stick it somewhere.


Ladies (no gentlemen, sorry), stow your luggage, clean your abdomen and get ready for departure! Backing out
.THAT flower was tight.

Time to land the cargo - oh my ... that ramp looks busy!

Why didn't she [the beekeeper] make it bigger yet, she KNOWS we're flying again!

The last one is a tighter crop, but I finally had figured out the flash.

In early spring, it's still the winter bee's duty to fly, and while she still made it from flower to flower

she's really old, having even less hair on her abdomen left than I have on my head, making her look almost black.
You have to make do without me. Not making it home anymore in this cold. You'll be fine, the little ones will take over soon!


Earlier flash pictures turned out so-so, with too harsh reflections for my taste. So I set up some really soft off-camera light

just to beautifully capture empty crocuses.

and, as the weather had turned, the last bee flying to the soon-to-close crocuses for the day



Thanks for making it all the way down here, Jens

[eaglem]

A great series of shots

[aslyfox]

words fail me, the photos are so great

they are exactly what I had hoped for when I started the PentaxForums.com → Photo Sharing and Galleries → Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories → Thematic Pollinators in action thread

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/26-mini-challenges-games-photo-stories/3...ml#post3953469

fascinating photos capable of grabbing your attention and educating you about Pollinators.

well done, well done

[brewmaster15]

I really enjoy when theres a story with a set of photos like this. The photos are great by themselves but the narration just make it perfect! Nice Series!
al

[Janse]

Impressive series.

[JensE]

To

A great series of shots

and

Impressive series.

Thanks for your comments! I really value them because I regularly enjoy your excellent photographs - even if I rarely respond. I'm often far behind, catching up on weeks old threads in bursts.

The same of course holds for

I really enjoy when theres a story with a set of photos like this. The photos are great by themselves but the narration just make it perfect!

Having three kids, I did e.g. like you time laps project thread. Our oldest is hooked already (18, just repaired her K-50), the middle one just finished a physics school assignment (15, various star trails), but is preparing to do aerial pictures next. For our youngest (9), it's still me doing action shots.

With respect to

they are exactly what I had hoped for when I started the PentaxForums.com → Photo Sharing and Galleries → Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories → Thematic Pollinators in action thread https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/26-mini-challenges-games-photo-stories/3...ml#post3953469 fascinating photos capable of grabbing your attention and educating you about Pollinators.

of course I considered the inspiring pollinator thread, thanks again for starting it and keeping it active. I'm following and had posted there before, just found the number of my pictures too big. Therefore just the the two selected ones with the link here.

I kind of went down a rabbit hole with the post, grossly underestimated how long it would take to process the remaining pictures, arrange and write everything up - just to reword most of it again because it was long-winded. Fun though!

I'll try to continue and show bees throughout the year in different situations. Weather is fairly cold and wet at the moment, I hope I still catch some good silver/white willow, or other salix.

[slowpez]

I kind of went down a rabbit hole with the post, grossly underestimated how long it would take to process the remaining pictures, arrange and write everything up - just to reword most of it again because it was long-winded. Fun though!

No you didn't. Great job and wonderful photos.

[aslyfox]

No you didn't. Great job and wonderful photos.

JensE wrote "I kind of went down a rabbit hole with the post, grossly underestimated how long it would take to process the remaining pictures, arrange and write everything up - just to reword most of it again because it was long-winded. Fun though!"

i feel for the time and labor that you expended on this projet

however, speaking merely for myself and for my own self interest

I don't care, stop whining, I want more, get to work

just kidding of course.