Deciding Which is Best

I found these flowers on a saguaro at Saguaro National Park on a hiking trail. The bees gave me the idea what I wanted but this was high up and the closest view was looking directly into the flowers. So I climbed up a slight hill to get higher and was looking for a photo where the bees were flying in. The lighting was weak so maybe a more sunny day will help with shutter speed. I know exactly where this cactus is.

Specific Feedback Requested

I do think the bees are soft, any thoughts on my next trip out there in a day or two.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Canon 90D Canon 100-400 ii (at 400 f/4-5.6) 1/250 f/25 iso 800 f/25 Is f/25 too much, wondered if f/11 might have been better

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Dean, I like the concept. The bees aren’t bad soft, and where they are smaller the details aren’t as obvious. I think f10 or 11 would probably have worked, giving you some more shutter speed. Some of our lenses aren’t that good at f25 anyway. I’m not sure that I have tried mine at f25. Very creative image. Looking forward to more of them.

I am going to try it again. This one did well but today is a better day and it would be interesting try a wider setting. I spend a lot of time just observing sitting on a rock I think is important before I pick up the camera. Now if I can get the bees to work with me I will have it made

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Love your perspective, Dean. The bees look like helicopters coming in for a landing on the space station. The cacti has great detail and the bees are quite nice and add to the story. Very nicely seen and captured.

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I really like the approach on this, and the composition.

I agree that a wider aperture would help reduce the blur on the bees. Even if more of the cactus flowers was outside the DOF, the image would still work, and the bees would be significantly better.

Before I read the tech specs on this image I thought you had used a wide-angle macro lens, but this is definitely the opposite approach. :grin:

Supreme image with both bees in focus, and I really like the towering cactus. Very interesting perspective compared to many other macro images. Maybe crop in a tiny bit on the right and bottom (there’s a sliver of cactus in the upper right corner and a tiny bit of blue under 2021 I feel is a bit distracting).

F25 is normally pretty soft on most lenses, but this looks just fine especially considering the “wide” perspective. The image has plenty of impact despite the lack of absolute detail in the bee’s legs etc.