Honey bee (Apis melifera) portrait.
View it full size here www.flickr.com/photos/sanmartin/5454333517/sizes/o/
Scale : head width = 4 mm
Technical settings :
- Focus stack of 18 images
- Micro-Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8D at f/5.6 on bellow
This photo was taken on February 18, 2011.
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Photo license:
Some rights reserved
Comments and faves
juan-barahona added this photo to his favorites. (27 months ago)
juan-barahona (27 months ago | reply)
Amazing work ! very well done !
sk_husky added this photo to his favorites. (27 months ago)
sk_husky (27 months ago | reply)
This is a phenomenal portrait! Is it 1:1 magnification, or did you use some device to magnify beyond 1:1?
Macroloupe (27 months ago | reply)
Beau travail !
kliton77 (27 months ago | reply)
great work and stack amazing detail congrats
Paul Iddon (27 months ago | reply)
Bees,Bees,Bees!
Very good
Franck Hollander (27 months ago | reply)
Génial Gilles! Belle perspective, on dirait qu'elle se pose une question :-)
Que deviendrait notre monde sans nos braves abeilles, hein? ;-)
timz501 (27 months ago | reply)
Superb work!
Joaquim F. P. added this photo to his favorites. (27 months ago)
Joaquim F. P. (27 months ago | reply)
Very sharp image! the 60mm is in normal position or reverse mounted?
greetings
Isamiels added this photo to her favorites. (27 months ago)
Keran McKenzie (27 months ago | reply)
This is an incredible image .. but I have to ask .. HOW
How do you do this? I understand the focus stacking etc .. but practicality wise. How do you get so close to the bee, take 18+ images, each one with a different focal length and NOT have him fly away? Do you "smoke" him to make him lazy or is this a dead bee or ?
Very Very COOL shot dude!!
Keran McKenzie added this photo to his favorites. (27 months ago)
Gilles San Martin (27 months ago | reply)
Thanks to all of you...
: The magnification is approximately 3:1
here on my APS-C sensor. The bellow allows
you to increase the magnification.
: The 60 mm is in normal position here. With
this focal length, reversing the lens does
almost not change the magnification. However
in his classical book about macro photo,
Lefkowitz says that all lens should be
reversed when used at higher magnification
than 1:1. So I should try one of these
days...
: The bee is dead here (the bee research
center for which I did this picture and
others, provided hundreds of bees dead due
to starvation but very well conserved).
However it is possible to do this kind of
work on living animals (maybe not with the
honey bee) for instance by shooting early in
the morning or in the winter. I highly
recommend you the wonderful galleries of
Kliton 
and John Hallmen 
who have lots of such pictures.
This photo was invited and added to the Macro Extreme (Invited Photos Only!) group.
This photo was invited and added to the **Macro-Life** group.
This photo was invited and added to the Macro-Life Elite (Admin Invite Only) group.
Keran McKenzie (27 months ago | reply)
Thank you for taking the time to respond ... I'm off to check out their galleries .. this is amazing!!
@laska and -AroFarMeR- added this photo to their favorites.
Jan Visser Renkum (27 months ago | reply)
Stunning macro!
Kadu Schiavo (27 months ago | reply)
great shot! amazing focus! wonderfull image
dkphoto7 added this photo to his favorites. (27 months ago)
This photo was invited and added to the TRUE MACRO : MACRO VERDADEIRO group.
blumenbiene (27 months ago | reply)
Very nice picture. I like it. :-)
Golden Ape Admin (27 months ago | reply)
And please be fair and comment
on 4 other excellent photos. :)
vinicius.lima and Panudet added this photo to their favorites.
This photo was invited and added to the Louisa's Macro Gallery group.
jackez2010 and apemarco added this photo to their favorites.