Wasps doing construction work

GardenersHelper

GardenersHelper

In Memoriam
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Nick
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EDIT: IN PREFERENCE TO THESE, PLEASE SEE VERSIONS WITH CORRECTED WHITE BALANCES IN THIS POST BELOW.

Captured in the garden today with the Canon 70D with 55-250 STM lens with Canon 500D closeup lens.


0764 01 2015_08_11 IMG_0122 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 03 2015_08_11 IMG_0137 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 04 2015_08_11 IMG_0117 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 02 2015_08_11 IMG_0116 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 05 2015_08_11 IMG_0203 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 08 2015_08_11 IMG_0253 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0764 11 2015_08_11 IMG_0160 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

0764 13 2015_08_11 IMG_0362 LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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Superb set Nick and very interesting they are too with such detail of thier work.

Are they out of the way enough for you to leave them to it and just photograph them?
 
alfbranch said:
Superb set Nick and very interesting they are too with such detail of thier work.

Are they out of the way enough for you to leave them to it and just photograph them?
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Thanks Alf. Not out of the way, no. The hole is in the ground, and with the 500D the lens is about a foot away from the subject. So I was kneeling/sitting/lying on the ground with my face 18 inches or so from the hole. Yesterday they were mainly flying in and out of the hole - I don't know where they were going. The flew around me, to the left and the right. Today there was more of the same, but as you can see some of them were working on the edge of the hole, building it up. Either way, they didn't seem bothered by my being there. None of them "buzzed" me to warn me off, or landed on me or the camera.

alfbranch said:
just photograph them
Click to expand...

He he. They were moving really fast. Most of the time I was photographing an empty hole. With the two Panasonics I used manual focus, pre-focused and held the shutter button half pressed. Like with the flies a while ago, as soon as I sensed movement I pressed the shutter button. Not only was there nothing there most of the time, but sometimes there was something there that I hadn't even been aware of. In the relatively small proportion of shots where there was one or more wasps in the frame, they were mainly OOF and/or wrong-sided (i.e. flying "out of the frame") or partly out of the frame. So this was very much a matter of randomness, luck and perseverance.

I tried the OVF and phase detect focusing for some of the 70D captures. I was surprised it worked at all, occasionally focusing on one of the wasps, but most of the time it focused on the fixed elements of the scene and with autofocus and manual focus the success rate was similar to what I got with the other two cameras.

So, I captured a lot of images. About 900 yesterday and about 1,100 today. Quite easy to sort through them very quickly though, as the vast majority were obviously duds.
 
 
They are really good photos. Personally I would not get that close without protection and I have handled wild scorpions (only for a second). I am surprised that 1000's flashes did not upset them.
 
ChrisA said:
The corrected colour ones are much better. I'd need a full hazmat suit to get them.
Click to expand...

davholla said:
They are really good photos. Personally I would not get that close without protection and I have handled wild scorpions (only for a second). I am surprised that 1000's flashes did not upset them.
Click to expand...

charlychuckchuck said:
These have really got me buzzin Nick.:clap::clap::clap:
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Thanks Chris, David, Charles. I wouldn't have stuck around if they had shown any interest in me! But they just ignored me - too busy getting on with their work I suppose. Mind you, that was during the day. At night it was a different story. There were several at the entrance of the nest, unmoving when I arrived. But the focus light on my flash unit woke them up and they very soon started buzzing around me too close for comfort. I backed off and gave up on that idea.
 
Lovely set, not seen that before (y)
 
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Given the nature of your subjects, I fear to
say "delicious" to describe the second set!

So I'll say brilliant!
 
@Norkie, @plamen_gb, @Kodiak Qc, @Paul Iddon, @FishyFish thanks for the positive comments.

plamen_gb said:
I like the ones from the 1st post!
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Interesting feedback, thanks. Initially I was a bit surprised. But looking at them again I have to say I'm not entirely keen on the colours in the second versions - they look a bit cold to me now. But the ones in the 1st post don't look right to me either!

FishyFish said:
I've only seen two wasps all year! Not sure whether to be happy or sad about that. ;)
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I feel really sad at seeing so few of all sorts of insects this year. I do hope it is a temporary blip. I would certainly be happy to see more wasps - I think they are rather photogenic.
 
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