I've recently started experimenting with my Canon 1300D and Canon 55-250mm lens on capturing small, fast-moving subjects such as bees and hoverflies.
I've taken photos of bees and hoverflies before, this time around however, I tried to take photos of these fliers while they are in midlflight.
Hoverflies
The hoverfly photos were taken at the La Mesa ecopark which is my go-to place whenever I need to take a photowalk.
Here's a fun fact about hoverflies: These insects are master mimics!
Most hoverfly species (Syrphidae) look like bees or wasps with their abdomens adorned with black stripes. Hoverflies mimic other insects mainly for protection against predators because unlike bees and wasps, hoverflies do not have stingers.
Another subtle difference between hoverflies and bees is that hoverflies only have a pair of functional wings.
Bees
Bees are slightly bigger than hoverflies, but are still challenging to photograph while in midflight.
To give you an idea of how small the moving subjects are, the orange striped hoverfly here is about 1/3 of an inch, while the bee is a about the same length although the bee is a bit "thicker" and looks larger.
I was trying to freeze the movement of the wings, but it seems I will still need to do a lot of adjustments particularly on the exposure.
Camera settings
As for the camera settings, I used "Manual" mode, a high ISO (about ISO 800 and up) and an aperture (AV) value of F/5. to F/6.3. My goal was to increase my shutter speed and "freeze" the subjects.
For most of the photos, my camera's shutter speed was at 1/160 second and above.
Additionally, I set my camera on "continuous mode" or "burst" mode hoping to capture sharp images. Good thing that natural lighting was good and I did not need to use the camera flash.
I set my focusing mode to "AI Servo" auto focus mode, a nifty feature of the Canon 1300D that makes focusing moving objects much easier. In theory, this focusing mode can track and analyze movement.
I also fully extended the 55-250mm lens to the maximum 250mm length and tried to get as close as I can to the moving subjects. It was a bit tricky, and I had to do a lot of panning shots.
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