Critique 2 bee shots for your C&C

[Durbs]

Decided to get out and use my Sigma 105mm as it hasn't really seen much use since I bought it.

Number 1:
Bee on Passion Flower by durbs_toast, on Flickr

Number 2:
Bee head on by durbs_toast, on Flickr

Both cropped, sharpened and minor levels adjustments in Lightroom. Number 1 I also slightly recoloured the background as the grey fence post was too neutral for my tastes.

 

[coopers]

Colour and detail look good in both shots,they do look better large on Flickr though.
Wow that flower in #1 looks like some weird plant from another planet...

 

[Durbs]

I was hoping for a bumblebee as they touch the top pollen sacs when doing circuits of the flower and really show the bees doing what they're meant to do.

Any other crit gratefully received!

My own thoughts - flash white-out on the stem. I used 2 flashes - one up top with a homemade flash-bender, another down-right direct around -1/32 for some fill. The top flash seems to have burnt out on the stem, so either power it down or diffuse it?

I would've liked to have gotten closer instead of cropping too, but space didn't allow, especially trying to hand-hold a flash, the remote and hoping the gorillapod didn't drop the top flash!

 

[alfbranch]

What diffusion are using the flashes?

Are they processed from RAW if so turning down the highlights and white slider will help control the highlights

They could be posted a bit bigger too.

Bee on Passion Flower by durbs_toast, on Flickr

 

[Durbs]

The top flash was a sto-fen plus a bounce-card, similar-ish to this
Bottom flash wasn't diffused.

For some reason didn't shoot in raw, which I usually do for Macro.
I'll try and edit the pics to be bigger

 

[Durbs]

(Now with larger images)