Today I had some time to go through some of the insect photographs I took over the summer.  I had this image tagged as a potential for portfolio use but needed some editing as it was quite bright that day so some tweaking needed to be done before it was finished.

These geen bees have a gorgeous metallic finish to them, but can also be very reflective causing some harsh highlights.  I’ve been asked countless times how I get so close to the insects when I photograph them.  In each situation it’s different.  For this little guy I was part of the environment when he arrived.  Now that doesn’t mean I was sitting there waiting all day for him to show up, it was something more like this…

When it comes to insects and a lot of animals, the environment changes so quickly and they are moving rapidly from place to place that it’s quite easy to blend right into the scene.  With this image, I simply saw there were a few bees going from flower to flower in a small patch that had bloomed in a field.  I simply took about ten slow steps and entered the scene next to a flower that wasn’t getting much attention but had been.  Bees especially have a tendency to go from flower to flower, but repeat their route several times before making a new one.  This was key to getting this photograph.  I moved in slowly and camped at a flower that I knew it would return to and sure enough within a few minutes I had my lens less than a foot away from the little worker and was able to capture this image without it knowing I was anything more than a moving bush.

Remember that next time you’re out trying to photography an insect.  There isn’t a need to camp out all day, but anticipating where the insect will soon end up will help you to blend in to the environment.  They key to remember is if you’re part of the scene when they get there, you’re usually not interpreted as a threat and can observe their lives from a very intimate perspective.