Lavender Bokeh - Vintage Helios 44M-2 lens

I spent about 40 minutes or so chasing bees and hoverfly's around our garden lavender.

Quite difficult with a vintage lens as you focus manually (no fancy auto focus tracking).

I zonal focussed and made minor adjustments to the focus when a bee / hoverfly flew into the frame. I also shot wide open to ensure I got some nice bokeh, the drawback being your DOF is very narrow.

This is probably one of my fave shots as the hoverfly is mid air.

The colour palette works quite well too

[Judith Johnson]

Super shot Phil! Worth the chase!

[Peter Dulis]

Lovely

[Phil Howcroft]

@busylady thank you judith , i was going for an arty shot rather than crystal clear natural history

[Kerri Michaels]

cool

[Phil Howcroft]

@pdulis thanks Peter :)

@moviegal1 thank you kerri :)

[FBailey]

Very nice, they're too quick for me!

[Beryl Lloyd]

A gorgeous shot - love that bee !

[Mags]

Instant FAV! How lovely! Pinning, too.

[Dianne]

This is very pleasing. Fav

[*lynn]

This is something you don't usually post, and it is quite fantastic! Great capture and DOF ~ fav

[Pat Knowles]

A very cooperative bee! It must be a complete different ball game shooting with a vintage lens! I have got very lazy & only ever use my iPhone these days...I think you would call me a snapper now not a photographer!

[Hazel]

Fav - Phil, this is absolutely beautiful - love it!

[CC Folk]

Love this shot...beautiful! :)

[~*~ Jo ~*~]

Beautifully captured fav!

[Margo]

Super shot fav

[Corinne]

That’s a fantastic catch Phil ! Instant fav !

[Nick]

Lovely

[Casablanca]

I always love catching an insect in flight - something glorious about it. Nice shot, mister! I like the dreamy look to the lavender.

[Dione Giorgio]

Great action capture and sense of speed. I find it very difficult to take shots of bees in the air, they are so fast.

[Helen Jane]

fabulous and perfect impressive focusing