Saving the bees old style - part 3

These are wonderful photos! May I ask how close you needed to get the camera lens to the subject while taking these photos?

Thanks. We are getting there as they say 

I was mainly working with around a 100mm - 200mm sort of distance there. A bit closer with the hoverflies as they are really small compared to a bee.

The TG-6 built-in lens will focus down to 10mm but the camera will likely cast a shadow at that sort of range. There are a couple of ring light adaptors for that purpose but they haven't arrived yet.

The other issue is that too close and the wildlife can get a bit suspicious of you. One of the issues I had with the bees is that they appeared to keep turning their backs to me if I got too close. By the time you got them framed up they had turned 180 on you. Useful for identifying tail colours but not the sort of photos most people want I suspect. If you want bee bum photos, I have them though... 

I was pretty close to the action throughout - I had bees in my face, up my sleeves etc. whilst doing this for you lot

If you want to keep your distance, I've seen some probe type macro lenses that are about 600mm long with a LED ring light in the end. Just be careful in public as you are likely to get shot attempting to use on there.

That's what I was going to say next, the bees must really love your flowers not to be bothered by you photoing them!

Flies that make it into the house seem to know once I am within arms reach of them with a swatter they need to fly off somewhere else, so frustrating trying to take care of business...

Your camera must also take nice photos of printed circuit boards?

For those that want to keep bees out of their armpits...

...and don't mind getting mistaken for a sniper.

https://www.astrhori.cn/collections/macro-lens

The bees don't appear to be too bothered by my presence.

I chose the black version of the camera on purpose as I wasn't sure how some wildlife may react to the the trendy red version. I also turned off the focus assist lamps.

I think flies are very sensitive to disturbances in airflow, which will be very detectable indoors where there is no wind. The gun type swatters probably work better there as you can keep your distance and avoid disturbing the air. 

Hopefully the camera will be good for printed circuits and mechanisms as well. The focus stacking mode will likely help there to recover the loss in depth of field. Just need a 'save the PCBees' challenge now

The bees don't appear to be too bothered by my presence.

I chose the black version of the camera on purpose as I wasn't sure how some wildlife may react to the the trendy red version. I also turned off the focus assist lamps.

I think flies are very sensitive to disturbances in airflow, which will be very detectable indoors where there is no wind. The gun type swatters probably work better there as you can keep your distance and avoid disturbing the air. 

Hopefully the camera will be good for printed circuits and mechanisms as well. The focus stacking mode will likely help there to recover the loss in depth of field. Just need a 'save the PCBees' challenge now