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Pollinator Photo Adventures

Bob Wildfong

When you watch bees and other pollinators visit your flowers, and start to learn to recognize some of them, it's natural to try to take some of those amazing photos that you see on pollination posters. It turns out that photographing bees is hard, not because they're dangerous but just because they're small and they move fast. Here are a few simple tricks to getting great shots of pollinators in action though, so try these out and see what you can capture with your camera!

Bees Move Too Fast, So Don't Chase Them

Crouching in your garden, moving your camera to take a perfect shot of a perfect bee perched on a flower. You frame, you focus, and... you get a photo of your flower with no bee. Usually, bees and other pollinators visit each flower for only a few seconds - usually exactly as long as it takes to aim your camera - and then they zip away to the next flower.

Experts say that the best way to catch a fast-flying bee in action is to focus your camera on a single flower first, and then wait for a bee to land. It takes patience, but when the perfect shot appears, click the button and you've got it!

Make Them Smile For the Camera

Bees don't really care how they look in your photo. They're just looking for food, and that's down inside the flower. If you choose a cone-shaped or tube-shaped flower, they'll stick their heads inside right away all you can get is ... let's call it a back-side image of a striped bee abdomen.

The best photos of people show their faces, and that's true for animals too, including insects. For your photo shoot, choose a flower that's wide open and flat, instead of cone-shaped, to get a better chance of seeing the whole bee. Another trick is to choose a flower that allows a good side-view, instead of only a view from the top. Vertical stems with clusters of small flowers are good for this.

A nice profile of a bee makes a pleasing photo.

The rear end, not so much.

Get Right Up Close and Hold Still

Many people are nervous about getting close to a bee to take a macro photo. Obviously, frightening them is not a good idea, but that's true for any animal. Be discreet, move slowly, and let the bees do what they're there for: getting food. A bee on a flower is always very focused on its meal and its work, so as long as you don't alarm it you should be perfectly safe to get close.

If you use the first trick of focusing on a flower and waiting for a bee to visit it, you'll be essentially invisible to that bee as long as you're still and quiet. Even if your camera is mere inches from the flower, bees won't care about you, or even notice you, if you just hold still. That's how you'll get a great photo.

Wait For a Sunny Day With Little Wind

Bees and butterflies prefer to gather food when the sun shines. Some of the more common species even use the position of the sun to navigate, so they'll be more likely to visit on a clear day.

The biggest challenge to getting a good photo of a pollinator is probably just the wind making the flowers move around. It's quite frustrating to get a flower framed and focused, then to see a pollinator land, only for a breeze to move the whole flower out of your image. If you can't stop the wind, just try another day.

Bees, butterflies, beetles, moths, flower flies, and even wasps are a fascinating part of the wildlife all around us, and right under our noses when we're in a garden. Notice these beneficial insects, learn more about them and how to identify them, and include them in your garden photography. They're a living part of your garden, and beautiful in their own ways.

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