Flower Friday and Tiny Tuesday Results... Finally!

I just loved these flowers when I saw them today at Brookside Gardens and the bees loved them too.  It was hard to get a shot without a butterfly or bee.  I managed a few, but really in the end liked this one with the best .  The day was cloudy, which makes the colors so much richer, but this meant I had to open the aperture a bit more and so I don’t have all the flower in focus….but the bees eyes are, right?   :-)  

The Insect Macro Tutorial kept me pretty busy this week, so I am a bit late with the Tiny Tuesday results.  There were 101 fabulous entries.   I don’t think I have ever seen so many TT entries with drops.  It is clear that there has been a lot of rain in NZ, Australia, and the UK. 

After my first pass, I had 25 entries that I wanted to give hearts, but as you know, I only have 5.  Actually, this week I have 6 to give because I gave one out prematurely before I realized it was a TT entry.  So it has taken me a long time to narrow it down to a final 10, but here they are in no particular order.

Favorites:
DonnaWanna
HebbleK
Mambo
Miffy
Ninniex
Barking

Here are some excellent images that deserve mention:
Skeena
Inverculain
AH14
Freyjad

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Thank you all for the positive response to the Insect Macro tutorial (for shooting handheld.) It can be easily retrieved by the tag #insectmacrotutorial and here are the 10 tips linked to their locations.  

1. Know the minimum focusing distance of your lens
2. Shoot with a fast shutter speed.  Use the very least the minimum shutter speed for the focal length of your lens to prevent soft images from camera shake.   
3. Shoot in good light so you can use the lowest possible ISO.
4. Focus on the eyes
5. Use Focus Peaking and/or Continuous AutoFocus
6. Use Backbutton focusing (BBF)
7. Shoot continuously in bursts
8. Take lots of shots. Be prepared to trash most of them.
9. Study insect behavior so you can anticipate their movement.
10. Have patience and allow plenty of time. 
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