I don't have any snowflakes...

... but my almond tree is blossoming. Friday it had 2 blossoms, but Saturday it busted out and the bees were all over it. Here's a few shots. There's more on Flicker. This is the first I've shared on this forum. I've had my 100 for a year or so now, but I always have a hard time getting sharp detail. Especially with those bees. I suspect that its because it doesn't have IS. If I bump up the shutter speed to compensate, then I often have to sacrifice depth of field by opening up the aperture. Any comments are welcome. Thanks.

1. Almond blossom. I used a B&W CPL with a really bright sky.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​487856828/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​487827810/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​487819280/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​487215767/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​488308174/

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IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/92288259@N07/8​486778477/

Lovely series of captures
Brian V.

nice set

Thanks guys.

Quite a nice set, Ed.

Beautiful set!

Thanks for the compliments.

Ishrani, It looks like you have pretty much the same equipment as I do. But I only have the 480EX. I'm looking to get better depth of field like the two flies in your latest post. I don't have as much experience with my flash and I suspect that's my weakness. Although, in these shots, the dark background wouldn't have been as nice. For these, I wanted the nice background blur, but on tight shots of just a bee, I would like to get better detail. Not quite sure what I need to do. All of these used flash, but on auto and mounted on the hotshoe. I'm working on modifying a Stroboframe for better macro use.

Cool work Ed.

Thanks Bas.

Very nice set. I'm still waiting to have some things to shoot around here. Everything is still either dead, or not back. =(

Beautiful series!