Difficult subjects

[acherontia]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Secondly, on the equipment side, at the shutter speed necessary for freezing wing movement, image stabalisation is unlikely to help.

This is very true. The AS is handy in other situations though - witness the fact I am now actually getting a higher success rate than OH in non-controlled outdoor situations. And why he's hankering after that Nikkor LOL

Originally Posted by PeterD

The most important point on these types of shot is the narrow dof of a Macro lens makes focussing extremely critical. Two things affect this - camera movement when pressing the shutter and subject movement. To overcome these issues use of continuous AF rather than single shot AF is essential. If your camera allows you to inhibit rapid focus changes then this too would ensure the subject remains in focus regardless of the movement issues above. Another thing to help get good images is to make use of the narrow dof of the Macro lens and do a manual pre-focus before pressing the shutter button. This will cause the background to blur and reduce the opportunity for the af to wander off the subject.

These points would all help regardless of the equipment make/model.

I'm not sure a manual pre-focus would have helped here - I was pointing all over the place at different bees and none of them would pose in the particular spot I wanted them to - little so and sos! I know what you mean though - if you've chosen a flower to concentrate on then setting AF to that FP will help with speed. I seem to remember I may have done that, after a while
Leaning on something helps stop body sway too - if you can!Or sitting down/lying down etc.
The rapid fire of multiple shots also worked here - most were in so it was probably fortune that designated that the bee came in , stayed a little longer and the AF was more or less on the right FP which made the lock on quicker.
An awful lot is luck with this sort of thing - although a bit of nous can help it along.

Cheers! Now I want to try more!!! A hoverfly, perhaps

Acher

[pressld2]

Here's my best in-flight honey-bee...



Like I said, not brilliant. I've only got just over a week to try again, after that the bees are being relocated.

Dave P.