Summer Coming to an End

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed 1/4000
Aperture f/3.2
ISO 400
Mode Aperture Priority
Natural Light

This photo comes from Woodstock Square, the site of the movie Groundhog Day. It's a fantastic square that just screams "quaint Midwest town" and most of the sites are of the big variety: the Woodstock Opera House, the gazebo, the brick roads, you get the idea. And when I went to photograph the square, I thought I would walk away with a photo of something large. But while I was strolling through the square enjoying the sunshine, I was struck by these flowers. I noticed two things immediately. First, the bees LOVED them and were zooming around with glee. Second, what appeared to be a rather large bloom was actually many small blooms bunched together giving the illusion of a larger bloom. My wheels started turning and I thought about why this might be. Could it by evolution in action? Are bees more attracted to big blooms? I certainly don't know. Maybe it's for defense and the bigger blooms are meant to look like something else. Whatever the case, I promptly popped a squat, screwed on my macro lens and tried desperately to capture a bee. And because you didn't get a picture yesterday (sometimes, the holiday's get the better of you) you get 2 today! WooHoo!!! I'm not cheating, I'm catching you all up!

Here's the bees - I call it "Summer Lovin'!"


Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed 1/2000
Aperture f/16.0
ISO 400
Mode Aperture Priority
Natural Light

You'll notice in both cases I had an ISO setting of 400 and a very fast shutter speed. The idea behind that decision is my attempt at freezing the flight of the bees. Turns out 1/2000 isn't fast enough as you can see the bees antennae blurred in the above picture. Plus, catching a bee mid flight is devilishly difficult. I might as well come clean - I haven't done it. But that's not for lack of trying. I managed to get this shot only by slowly moving closer and closer. That and the fact that they were literally "getting busy" allowed me to get really close.

The other detail to notice is the difference in aperture. With the flowers, I wanted to isolate a focal plain and bring to the fore a few blooms with one really the crux of the picture. With the bees I wanted to maximize my chance at getting the bees in focus from head to tail. So with the flowers, I shot rather wide at f/3.2 to get the tight depth of field. With the bees I stopped down to f/16.0 to achieve a much deeper depth of field. Those of you that have read multiple posts know we all like to play with depth of field and I promise this won't be the last time we mention it.

My connection to Sere's post is simply the colors. There are great colors in her picture of the carnival (Brandi's too for that matter) and I wanted to really concentrate on colors for this post. Plus, in the case of the carnival I attended this weekend there were fireworks. These flowers sort of reminded me of fireworks. So here you go, the fireworks of nature, both on the color front (the flowers) and the romantic front (so that's why they say "the birds and the bees!").

And I'm spent. What a weekend, what a beautiful flower, and what beautiful fireworks. May your day be blessed with the same. Till next time...

Scott