One year I visited a local park that was also home to a series of gardens. One garden had a nice range of flowers, which of course attract various insects. I found one flower that appeared a bit past its better days, missing some petals. And yet that didn’t stop the insects from visiting. So I stood by, camera in hand, and attempted to photograph what I could.

One particular subject was this bee. It kept moving all around the flower, gathering nectar and giving me different views. Though I would have preferred just a bit more depth of field, this shot ended up being my favorite. The focus is on the very top of the bee’s head, where the antennae are horizontal. And there’s a ring of focus around the bees abdomen. But otherwise, the majority of the photo is a blur of color.

I was hand-holding my camera, using a 50mm f/1.4 lens with the aperture set to f/4. Normally there’d be a bit more depth of field, but I had on an extension tube to let me get a little closer to the subject, which also has a side effect of reducing the depth of field.

There’s always room for improvement, and I might have tried some things differently if I were to do this again, but overall I’m pleased with how it turned out. What do you think? Anything you’d do differently?

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