Critique "...And it was all yellow" - Sweat Bee added..

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Tim
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I started a little mini-project a few weeks ago, photographing the multitude of bugs that hang out around my Rudbeckia "Goldstrum" that are currently in bloom. They are great flowers, growing quite tall, but a various heights, seemingly creating a great wall of bright yellow. They bring in lots of varieties of bees, wasps, hovers and flies along with various other insects and their predators. I nipped into the garden yesterday and counted about 10 distinct species, included 3 types of bee, a small wasp, lots of hovers and a couple of flies within 5 minutes (sadly I didn't have time for a shoot), and probably around 100 or so individuals. The only time I have seen more activity is when the ivy bush flowers after the onset of winter.

Anyway, I have lots of others images that I still need to sort through, a few stacks to process, so I'll post more to this thread when I get round to sorting them. In the meantime these were my immediate favourites, and an environmental shot to show my hunting grounds:

Yellow jumper oOOo by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Barkfly on Rudbeckia by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullvantii 'Goldstrum' by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

I find it a real struggle to photograph any bright colour, and yellow seems particularly susceptible to changes in exposure. I think I will definately have to get myself a grey card at some point to figure out the correct colour balance, but for the time being I've processed these individually and without much care to ensure all the yellows match. I probably should do that but it sounds a like a lot of hard work to me!

Here's some music to accompany the series..
 
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lol... the title seems familiar :D

The jumper is spectacular but the barkfly looks a little over done I know the detail is in there and its not blown but needs a little dulling down to my eyes.
 
Excellent stuff Tim (y) , this macro section isn't somewhere I comment but I do like a regular look, it never ceases to amaze me how much detail you chaps can get out of such small things :clap: :)
 
Lovely shots Tim, the vibrant yellow works brilliantly, especially with the jumper!
Thanks Neil, if I carry on this series, we'll all soon get sick of yellow I think ;)

Very nice - both of them. The yellow is a nice background to take them against.
Cheers Chirs It is difficult to hand though. I've had to do a fair bit of pp work to arrive at a colour I find acceptable :(

lol... the title seems familiar :D

The jumper is spectacular but the barkfly looks a little over done I know the detail is in there and its not blown but needs a little dulling down to my eyes.
You had me confused at first as the Jumper is much more sturated than the barkfly (rather the barkfly has been toned down a bit) but I guess you are referring to the highlights. Yeah, shiny surface and head on, so not ideal. I think pulling down the highlights further will impact the rest of the subject though too (as it's mainly white) and make it look a it dull. Just have to live with this one... or construct a new diffuser....hmm..

Very nice mate, the lighting and tonal control in the barkfly is quality!
Thanks, yeah, difficult to get rid of the yellow colour cast on this semi-transparent bug :)

Excellent stuff Tim (y) , this macro section isn't somewhere I comment but I do like a regular look, it never ceases to amaze me how much detail you chaps can get out of such small things :clap: :)
Cheers Phil, good to see you in here. Remind me when we meet up and we can go for a mini-macro session!
 
Another one from last night. It was almost dark and cloudy conditions. no flies or bees around so the Springtails could get a look in:

Entomobrya intermedia by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Edit: Just noticed I can see a halo around this one, from my over exuberant PP work. Hadn't noticed it last night (I was working on a different monitor) so will have to revisit this...
 
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Another one from last night. It was almost dark and cloudy conditions. no flies or bees around so the Springtails could get a look in:

Entomobrya intermedia by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Edit: Just noticed I can see a halo around this one, from my over exuberant PP work. Hadn't noticed it last night (I was working on a different monitor) so will have to revisit this...

Definite halo but I think its quite cool... I know not what you want. But another nice yellow shot.

We always need to make a new diffuser!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: My brain hurts.
 
We always need to make a new diffuser!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: My brain hurts.

Yeah, for the past year I've just been using a small, off-the-shelf- softbox, which I have just added velcro tape to as the way of attaching it to the flash was rubbish. I was spending all my time designing and building new diffusers and no time out getting photos so I just went with the easy solution for a while. I'm also still using my tiny 90ex which isn't ideal. It works of course, but I just think it's a bit low powered to shoot well through multiple diffusion layers. Anyway my point is, my lighting rig isn't a good as it should be at the moment, but at least it's small and packs away easily :)
 
I like the yellow background, provides good separation for most of your shots
 
Superb set Tim, the barkfly has the sad puppy look going on.
 
I like the yellow background, provides good separation for most of your shots

Superb set Tim, the barkfly has the sad puppy look going on.

Well held on the yellow Tim, very good in fact.

For me (sorry) and it's only me, the jumper, because of the angle, looks like her body has been stretched using the liquefy tool... But she's still cute :)

Paul.
Thanks guys! Paul, I know what you mean. Some of them do seem to have surprisingly long abdomens when viewed from the side. It is accurate but as you suggest, there are likely alternate angles that show them off better.

The rudbeckia are still flowering. A little tatty around the edges but still attracting plenty of life:

Lasioglossum Bee by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Lasioglossum Bee by Tim Garlick, on Flickr
 
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Those swrat bee shots are great
Not that the other stuff is bad you know:D
 
Thanks guys! Paul, I know what you mean. Some of them do seem to have surprisingly long abdomens when viewed from the side. It is accurate but as you suggest, there are likely alternate angles that show them off better.

The rudbeckia are still flowering. A little tatty around the edges but still attracting plenty of life:

Lasioglossum Bee by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Lasioglossum Bee by Tim Garlick, on Flickr


ohhh you... still not got a decent shot of one of these had one rest on my hand a while back :D

Great shots especially #2
 
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