At the risk of being repetitive, I'm posting another photo of the swarm that is still in our yard, though they moved to a different/nearby tree. My last photo was taken with my new, Coolpix that affords some wonderful flexibility, but disintegrates if I crop and enlarge. I took my Nikon D5000 and stood beneath the swarm, and, shooting RAW, it's amazing the clarity that remains as I zoom in.
My photo information is available, and I'd gladly accept any suggestions for further improvement. I'd consider taking the tripod and a long lens, but I'd want to stand further away. I'm not keen to make "anyone" angry here!
I have never seen that many bees either. How cool! You could use a tripod and long lens but the more you zoom the greater the clarity can decrease - especially on smaller subjects. Your ISO was 3200 which increases the noise factor in the picture - so if you can get more light then you would have a smaller ISO and hence a less noisy image as well. You could get a reflector and bounce the light up onto the nest - but who in their right mind would do all this??? I wouldn't even be anywhere near all these bees. ;)
@kass Oh thank you SO MUCH for taking the time! I did go into my camera settings and found where I could make a change where it wouldn't arbitrarily change the ISO to higher than 400. I didn't know that information about the long lens, so I'll try once more just as I did with this, Hopefully it will make for crisper photos on all else as well. Thanks again ♥
@kass OMG...I've spent the day using a low ISO and tripod and what a world of difference! I had no idea my cameras were automatically selecting the ISO for me! Again, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to make these suggestions; what a good friend and mentor you've been! I may not always get it right, but I have a better idea now what to do!
