Insects feeding on Choisya flowers

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These were captured in the garden yesterday using a Raynox 150 on my FZ200 with pie tin diffuser on the Metz hot shoe flash. Seven were at 1/2000 sec and the other one at 1/1000 sec. All were at minimum aperture of f/8, equivalent to f/28 on Canon APS-C.

There are 1300 pixel high versions in this album over at Flickr.


0725 039 2015_05_19 P1730510 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 041 2015_05_19 P1730527 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 052 2015_05_19 P1730600 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 066 2015_05_19 P1730621 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 081 2015_05_19 P1730794 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 083 2015_05_19 P1730806 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 093 2015_05_19 P1730877 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 102 2015_05_19 P1730910 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
Some "Stunning" images Nick, great detail, good composition & nice lighting.(y)

George.
 
Yes superb Nick light is really nice my favourite is the last one the bee you've caught him perfectly
 
Excellent set and variety Nick. A lot of central compositions going on and even spite that my fav is the Nomada Bee #4 though could do with a little more crop off bottom and rhs. :)

Other than the compo everything else is bang on lighting detail focus. (y)
 
Great set of images and what a variety of subjects.
 
Thanks all for the positive comments.

A lot of central compositions going on and even spite that my fav is the Nomada Bee #4 though could do with a little more crop off bottom and rhs. :)

Other than the compo everything else is bang on lighting detail focus. (y)

You are right about the centrality. I hadn't noticed that, and so obviously can't have been thinking about it much when doing the cropping.

On reflection though, and even though I'm normally into off-centring for invertebrates, I'm not quite sure what I think about it in relation to these particular images. We've got subjects that are wrapped up in what they are doing, rather than looking/pointing/moving in a particular direction (where the extra space normally goes). Centrality feels quite comfortable to me in these circumstances. I think. Or perhaps I'm just rationalising after the event. Not sure. :)

There are a couple of practical issues to do with off-centring. One is what needed to be chopped off from the areas just outside what you can see here, which has a large impact (to my eye when doing the cropping) as to the outer limit as to where some edges can be placed. That in turn can affect how much other edges can be cropped because of the impact on the aspect ratio and how that works in relation to the subject's disposition and other shapes in view. I do remember there was quite a lot of edge-chopping to remove intrusive distractions. Another thing with off-centring, and this arose with #4 when I used your suggested crop, is that depending on the implications for the top and bottom edges it can require more "magnification" than the image can bear.

Another issue for #4 in particular is that it is part of a rather lengthy series (lot's of images that I'm sure are too similar for most people's pleasure, but the sort of series which amuses me, and I like to run as a slide show sometimes on my PC). A primary change as you move through the series is the size of the subject in the frame (it slowly zooms in and out a couple of times). The subject size adds another constraint to what works by way of cropping, although as with the edge issues, whether that actually had any impact on centrality in this case I don't know. I've taken a single image out of the series for posting here so the series considerations aren't relevant for the post, but nonetheless they do affect what images I have available for posting, singly or a small number on non-series basis.

Anyway, here is #4 with a right hand side crop. I also cropped the bottom, but felt that in turn seemed to require a thin slice off the top. The crop left the subject larger in the frame and I'm not sure the image quality is up to it.* Also of course (and not relevant when considering the single image in its own right), at that size it wouldn't work the same way in the series, not in its current position. I do move images out of capture time order for these series if I think it can be done without too jarring an effect. I don't know how that would have worked here, but it is an example of the sort of thoughts going through my mind when doing cropping. I may have described how, after initial selection and editing of individual images I then work back and forth through the set editing for consistency of appearance (brightness, colours etc), and also reordering them and adjusting the editing to make smoother transitions between images.


0725 066a 2015_05_19 P1730621 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

It's really good to get specific feedback, because it makes me think things through more thoroughly, so thanks Bryn. And despite the impression you might have got from what I've written here, I'll certainly be thinking more explicitly about centrality. :)

* Having now spent a little time switching back and forth between the two versions I think it can bear the extra crop, and I do prefer both the composition and the extra detail that I can see in the cropped version. Thanks again Bryn. :)
 
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Crop is a lot better imho it also gets rid of the distracting yellow pollen on bottom right of the original image and I'm glad I can help or at least provoke some thought into what I said.

TBH we need more of it in this section because I think we all want to improve and the only way for that to happen is by critique.
 
Crop is a lot better imho it also gets rid of the distracting yellow pollen on bottom right of the original image and I'm glad I can help or at least provoke some thought into what I said.

It certainly helps. It gets the critical juices going, which is good. For example ... :D

As to whether the crop looks better, seeing your comment about the yellow pollen on the bottom right I had another compare, and this time I saw it differently. It turns out that in the original I "see" (? "feel") a quite strong diagonal from the yellow in the bottom corner through the yellow on its abdomen and then its thorax and eyes, which along with its antennae have a yellow component, and on up to the yellowish stuff at the top left. And I "see" two diagonal lines parallel to this central one, roughly equally spaced on either side of the subject, with something of a framing effect. The whole thing has a (to my eye) pleasing (loose) symmetry, while the three "lines" reinforce the orientation of the subject and also "focus my eye in" on the subject somewhat. I don't get any of that from the re-cropped version. And which is better to my way of thinking/looking? Now they just look different to me, rather than one being better.

I had a look at the others and cropped a couple of them in tighter. Even though I had your centrality comment very explicitly in mind, and experimented with the left and right edges, they both still came out fairly central. Actually, I'm not sure I'm keen on having too many images cropped this tight. It feels a bit cramped, and also a bit lacking in context (even if the context is just space in some cases).


0725 041a 2015_05_19 P1730527 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0725 102a 2015_05_19 P1730910 LR 1300h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


TBH we need more of it in this section because I think we all want to improve and the only way for that to happen is by critique.

Absolutely. It's a tricky issue though, as we've discussed before I think. I'm pretty hesitant to say much, having got the "cold shoulder" a couple of times. Also, where people have "Edit my images, No" I tend to think they may not welcome suggestions, and I often want to play with images before suggesting anything just to see if I think it will work in practice. I tend to think in terms mainly of post processing suggestions.
 
Sorry I was only referring to the nomada bee with the pollen in the bottom rh corner.

I actually prefer the original compo on both the above crops.... the flower is in the 3rd (as such) which suits very nicely to a pleasing image in my eye at least.
 
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