Photographing Bees In The Garden

Now photographing insects is something I have never done before, however, I have noticed a fair few bees and wasps in my garden recently and although I don't have a macro lens I thought I'd give it a go. Obviously I couldn't get too close with a telephoto lens but with this in mind I tried to capture not only the creature itself but also an interesting composition around it. Using a large aperture o give me a shallow depth of field I was able to create blurred backgrounds so the main focus remains with the bee and the flower it is collecting from. To add a little impact and more colour I was able to use the grass behind the subject as a backdrop to help the purple flowers and colour of the bee to stand out even more, and with the bright sunshine this has enhanced the composition nicely.

Later in the week I was able to borrow a macro lens and although I had to wait for the rain to clear and the sun to shine, I was able to get a handful of very close up photographs of this bee, and as it was my first attempt I was quite please with how it turned out.