[gmans]

This was very hard to capture photos, the bees were very busy and I had to move to keep up to where they where they landing on the flowers, was hand and breath held, with creep into focus on your toes and hold breath. see the 2 original photos and lastly a heavy crop called tomorow @ f8(file name).
The PP was with Iphoto (need to upgrade software) cropped, sharpened, slight contrast boost and any comments , tips on PP would be appreciated.

gmans

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[jford]

Nice job.
Sorry - no critique. Just a couple of questions: are Australian bees as agressive as African bees, or are they more like the honeybees we have in the US? Do you know whether they're "native" or introduced? Never thought about it.
Thanks for sharing.

[bezuidar]

Pitty u could not come closer !

[gmans]

Jford, thanks, these bees are european honey bees, are introduced and nothing like the African bees. Australia has native bees mostly small dark coloured and no sting that I know of, would like to get some shots of them would be probably be more difficult then the honey bees, they are very quick and small. find the hive maybe.
ve it
bezuidar, yes i agree every time i got to close they seem to dart off, give it another go soon.

[smf]

I'm particularly fond of images 3 and 1, in that order.
You might try adding slightly more contrast if you aren't satisfied with the bee's appearance. (I understand you did that before posting.)
Also, as you mentioned the possibility of upgrading your software: I use Photoshop Elements (not yet version 11) with Nik Software's Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.0 as plug-ins. (You can get free trial periods via Nik Software's website.) Nik provides control points, which allow you to make changes on isolated parts of your image. Or you can apply changes to the entire image.
Viveza 2.0 and Color Efex Pro 4.0 can be used with Photoshop. Lightroom or Aperture — not merely with Photoshop Elements. However, Elements costs less than full-fledged Photoshop.
My only affiliation with Adobe and Nik is as a customer.
Best wishes, and I hope to see more of your images.

[gmans]

Thank you smf, the software, shall check it out , was thinking of giving Aperture a go, but a trail of these mentioned makes sense if there is not to much to download. Cheers

[mrNewt]

There is one big minus that I see and I won't go into the other details because no matter what you would do, it cannot be fixed unless you re-take the photo.
The head is missing ... ... next time try and compose in such a way that at least part of the head/eyes is more visible.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with a "back image", but you have to make sure the whole body is in good, sharp focus.

[excanonfd]

Bees can sense if you are chasing after them and will take evasive action or if they are the aggressive variety, you can get in a heap of trouble. Set up your gear and let the bees become acclimatized to you being there and wait for the bees to come to the flower your lens is focused at. This takes some patience because sometimes it takes a long time before any bees show up near the flower the lens is pointed at but by and large, you will get a higher ratio of keepers this way than chasing after the bees with your camera.

[jbinpg]

I agree that the images are a bit flat. More contrast would work wonders. Now, as a son of a beekeeper, I figure I am qualified to offer some bee advice. European honeybees deserve all the respect and help we can give them. They pollenize many of our crops and thus keep us alive. They are innately gentle beasts and will only attack in self-defence. So if you approach them calmly and quietly and wear non-threatening white clothing you will be good to go. Honeybees world wide have been decimated by the varroa mite. Pray we never see their extinction.

Jack

[gmans]

Thanks mrNewt , indeed i shall try for the head shots.

excanfold, you a right, was pressed for time when these were taken, was at work and had ten minutes. thanks

jbinpg, PP tried again and maxed out on the contrast too 100 in iphoto, this was exported from DNG raw file. need more practise on PP and better software for raw.
does look a bit better. Sorry about the pun. See photo cheers.

[jbinpg]

Looks much better but there is still room for PP improvement. Perhaps experiment with other software out there to see if you can find one that suits your workflow.

[gmans]

thanks jbinpg.