New Zealand Christmas Bush & Bees

November 03, 2018

New Zealand Christmas Bush & Bees

We have 3 beautiful New Zealand Christmas Bush trees in our front yard. Thanks to the very welcome rain we had a few weeks ago, they are in full bloom now.

They look beautiful but seriously, they are not doing my hay fever or asthma any favours!

The local bees are in Heaven!

Photographing bees on flowers is always a little difficult; it's easy to catch them on the flower but I like to try and catch them in flight. They are pretty quick though and it can be difficult to focus and get a sharp photo. I did initially start to shoot in AI Focus mode (made for moving objects) but, the bees were just too quick. Also, the flowers were moving a lot in the breeze which kept confusing the focus. I switched to One Shot focus using a single focus point and this worked much better.

I shot with my Canon 600D. Initially, I put on my EF 85mm f1.8 prime lens; I thought it would give a lovely depth of field and that f1.8 is pretty fast! Trouble was, on the APSC camera, the 85mm is equivalent to a 135mm and so I had to stand back a little too far, which made focussing on a small bee a little difficult.

So, I swapped over to my trusty kit lens EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 zoom. This was much better. I was able to zoom out to get the location of the subject bee, then zoom in to get up much closer! Once zoomed in, and having the larger subject in the view finder, focusing was easier. Shooting at the fastest aperture available (because it does change when zooming in and out) I got some great shots.

I think the compromise with using this kit lens was that (in my opinion) the photos could have been a little sharper. Compared to the 85mm, I also think that the background bokeh from the kit lens, when zoomed right in, is more pleasing to the eye. Maybe I need to get a dedicated macro lens?

Still, I think that these turned out pretty good!