Man... This drives me NUTS!!

Can't see it!

Yes, I miss a few as well. I'm still trying to find what works best for my shots.
I see what you mean about the focus being just past it's head, but I still think this is a pretty good shot. That fifty mill with extensions seems to work well.
-Bruce

Thanks Bruce. At 2.8 and extension tubes, it's a miracle I got as much as I did in focus.
I think the 50 is terrible at closeups at wide open apertures. Add a couple extension tubes and it works pretty well. My 70-200 works well too... but with 3 tubes it sticks out pretty far and won't get this close. The good thing is you can be a bit farther back... which can be a little relaxing (especially around trumpet vines like this... there were hundreds of bees and wasps)

It's frustrating. It seems that 1 out of 100 shots are up to my new standards. I miss so many shots that look OK on the camera LCD.

Sorashell, not sure why you can't see it. I've direct linked to fotopic a number of times elsewhere.
I have a hyperlink on the image. If you can click on the empty box, maybe that'll work.

I updated the link. Hopefully it'll work now for everybody.

Weird. It seems that fotopic.net somehow compresses the image after uploading. I don't think there were that many jaggies in the JPEG when I saved it.

RAitch, happens to me to, in the viewfinder and lcd, I will think i have nailed it only to be disapointed later. I guess we just have to keep trying and I am sure that with practice, our good to bad ratio will improve.

Char

Good to hear Char. I'll keep trying and post any good ones for sure.
There have been some AMAZING macro shots posted here... and some people seem to post them regularily. Hopefully my 'skillz' can increase to their level at some point.

In the macro tips sticky, "Roach711" posted what I thought was an EXCELLENT idea.
Try using the DOF button on the camera to see what is, and isn't in focus. This only pertains to EOS compatable lenses though, and I'm using Pentax screw mount lenses via an adapter.
-Bruce

try putting the iso up to 400. will give you a couple more stops (even 800 at a push) I'd rather have a slightly noisy image than an out of focus one......

chemicalbro wrote:
try putting the iso up to 400. will give you a couple more stops (even 800 at a push) I'd rather have a slightly noisy image than an out of focus one......

Another good idea Alan. You might consider posting this in macro tips.
-Bruce

Well my flying bee shots average is 1 decent shot per 100 many are close but just not good enough.
Rob.

All good to hear, and in daylight I definitely use the DOF button. If it's not bright out and your shutter speeds are low to compensate, it's really hard to see your DOF (or when using flash).

In this case, the bee flew into the flower, crawled out really fast, cleaned the crap off it's face for about 1 second (which is when I somehow got this picture) and then flew off.
It scared the crap out of me. The thing looked huge and when it flew away, it looked like it was jumping into my eye.

I was changing my ISO from 100-400 which really does help. I like to keep my speeds at least 1/150 for handheld if I can with the 50mm and tubes. I don't like blurry pictures either, and hate it when I ruin a shot because I move. I didn't have enough time to play with ISO for this shot, I had to use what was there already (which is usually the case for me).

Gyrob, nice to hear. Sometimes the people that post awesome pictures around here don't seem to let on that it was difficult to get.