Gathering of Pollen
A few days ago I posted Poppy Silhouette, a series of shots showing the shadows cast by bees gathering poppy pollen, including an animated gif. These 7 macro photographs are of the same flower shot a few minutes later than the others but from the other side of the poppy. It really shows how much difference lighting makes to a subject.
I like them both angles, but I think I prefer the silhouette shots because they are a more unusual perspective, and impart much of the same information.
While no deer fencing is visible here, these poppies are within that fence, also protected from the appetites of deer (one of my local readers assures me that the deer in this area do eat poppies, which would explain why the only ones I saw were inside the fencing. ) You can see other posts in the series here.
The bees were constantly on the move and it was pretty hard to get crisp shots of them, there were quite a few duds. Sadly I did not get a set of shots from this angle that was conducive to turning into an animation – it would be nice to have companion gifs from both sides of the flower.
I am not totally sure of my favourite in this post, but probably it is the second from the bottom with the glimpse of parts of the body through foreground petals. All of them have very nice little details; for example near the bottom of the fourth shot there is a blurry transition from poppy edge to green background that I really like.
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Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon EF 100mm/f2.8 macro lens, ISO100, f2.8 (image 3) and f4.0 (all others), 1/160th to 1/1000th, hand-held.
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burnt embers 
One of my favourite posts, thank you ehpem. To me this is nice and crisp and professional quality macro photography.
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Wow, thanks Joseph! I appreciate that. It is one of my favourites too.
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LOVE these shots!
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Hi Paula – thanks so much!
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These are all amazing photos! Well done Ehpem!!!
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Thank you David. It was a terrific subject, and such a nice morning that even if none had worked out I would have still had a good time.
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These are absolutely wonderful images, ehpem! And I continue to be very impressed by your steady hand – the images are so sharp I would have sworn you used a tripod. I tried to do some like this earlier this summer, when our poppies were covered in bees (I counted five hard at work on a single flower at one point), but my results were disappointing. Yours are excellent!
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Thanks Laurie. I am not sure what the secret is, but there were quite a few out of focus too. My lens focuses quite quickly, but often I just set the lens on manual and then sway my whole self in and out of focus (not necessarily on purpose), hoping to hit the shutter at the right moment. I try to avoid side to side motion, that never works.
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I love these! They are definitely “all about the bees”. It’s cool to see them hard at work, filling their little pollen sacs. I, too, favour the second-to-last photo — the clarity of the seed pod, the drooping white fringe, the bee’s eye popping out of the fringe, and, in counterpoint, the abstract purple “eye” in the bottom corner. Lovely composition and colour.
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Hi there! Thanks so much. You can see from the crop that I favoured that one too, bringing up the details with a bit of a zoom-in.
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My favorite is the second to last photo. There’s good focus on the bee and the flower. To my way of thinking, if there is a bee in the photo, it’s a photo of the bee and not the flower. I like bees (as long as they keep their distance).
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Thanks Ken. I have to agree, flowers are a stage for bees to strut their stuff in front of a lens. I am not equipped to take pictures of bees in flight (and too lazy as well) and would not want to disturb their hives with my camera either.
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Wonderful macros, and I love the color of this poppy.
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Hi Lisa – thanks so much. I love that colour too. I am pretty sure this was a volunteer in this garden, that happens around here quite a bit. Poppy seeds seem very durable and appear to survive the composting process better than pretty much everything else in there (except flatware).
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lovely macros. Bees are such tricky subjects!
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Hi Emily – thank you! They are, especially busy bees.
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