I like the look of this bee a lot, but this is one of the very few times I was able to also capture an insect other than a bee. One of the things I love about these echinacea is the colorful spikes in those danger colors—yellow, orange, and red—like a collection of nuclear warheads arranged by Fibonacci.
Honeybee and green fly join forces in the inspection of nuclear warheads
Generally the best of the macrobox images are ones in which a bee is in mid air yet still in focus. I’ve gotten some very nice ones—this here is an excellent example. This Dahlia variety is called Golden Hour.
Honeybee prepares to land on a Golden Hour Dahlia
F32 and BEES There #2
Boris in one of his comments on Folio A asked for more detail on the Macrobox, which is given here:
The Macrobox is based on a contraption I purchased years ago from John Hart of Colorado. It was designed to hold 2 cameras at 90 degrees to each other, and both cameras were aimed at a 50/50 mirror (aka a beamsplitter) which is at a 45 degree angle. One camera shoots THROUGH the mirror, while the other shoots at the reflection.
Overhead view of the Macrobox
Side view of the Macrobox
In the sideview picture you can see the beamsplitter on the left side of the rig. If you look carefully at the mirror, you can see both cameras.
The cameras are individually mounted on sliders so they can be slid into position. Additionally, the Macrobox is normally mounted on a heavy-duty Velbon macro slider, to help with making fine adjustments to the positioning.
Close up shot of a honeybee on a dahlia
This whole set could be titled “Adventures Near and Far.”
Bee Good #4
This was shot in August of 2020. Lots of the technical details are listed on the slide mount. One detail is listed incorrectly—the extension is 56mm and not 57. Cameras were triggered with the same wired trigger that I’ve used for fireworks. I like the look of the stamen in this shot—each one looks like a nuclear warhead. Using the macrobox, I was able to get a shot like this as well as shots of my cat Edison that circulated last round. But a total PITA to set up and use.
Meanwhile, a new friend of mine had opened my eyes to some Hasselblad equipment I was unaware of— things like bodies with built-in motor drives and wired remotes. I picked up a couple of the motorized bodies, but they were too big for the macrobox. That’s when the quest for a new macrobox began in earnest. By the end of September I had ordered an optical breadboard from Baselab Tools, which was to be the platform for my new toy.
F32 and BEE There!