"What's happening to the bees?" Photo

Photographer’s Note

"What is happening to the bees?"
That is the question researchers are scrambling to figure out. A quarter of the honeybees in the United States have suddenly disappeared. Whole hives seem to be vanishing. No dead bees can be found. It’s truly a mystery.
To learn more simply google the title of this photo.

bombilla, isabela_sor, Waylim, Floydian, zeynepe, jean11-3, Dpbours, johnfreeman, pboehringer, lrw1966, chpp, avene, SteveH, Blairfraser, Cretense, chrisnet, mphotographies, PaulVDV, robiuk, Dillinger, litiancai has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

bombilla (3402) 2008-05-18 20:45

I also point you to this excellent documentary The Silence of the Bees.

It's more than just a mystery. It's a potential catastrophe. The bees are an essential link in the food chain. If they continue to die out, the entire food supply will be affected.

Remarkable photo. Simple and stunning.

Best, -Hugh

testmaniac (11832) 2008-05-18 20:52

Hi Ryan, great macro scene! Perfect composition, colors and POV.

TFS and regards,
Philip

jfarre (31) 2008-05-18 20:54 [Comment]

Show Comment

lopshang (628) 2008-05-18 21:21

Hi Ryan

Very beautiful and sharp shot. Love the way you took the flying bee . Very good composition and great POV. Colors are lovely too.

Regards,

Lopshang.

isabela_sor (41919) 2008-05-18 21:35 [Comment]

Show Comment

MarcT (20983) 2008-05-18 21:48

Hi Ryan,
That's a superb catch. The marvelous moment, just before landing and ... perfectly sharp with great colours ;o)))
Cheers
Marc

Waylim (10717) 2008-05-18 22:28

Ryan,
Great caputred with of the moment with the bee in flight and a beautiful coposition. Love the very brilliant colors of the flower and the background. Good sharpness and clarity. TFS
Way

Floydian (30970) 2008-05-18 23:07

Hi Ryan,
Syperb shot. Instead of only just a flower you put the bar higher to your own standards and brought the wesp inside. Inside knowledge, dedication and a very clever mind in creating this. Perfect, all his simplicity..!!!
Regards, Henk

zeynepe (9340) 2008-05-18 23:12

Hello Ryan,
I also wonder the answer of this question:
"Did Albert Einstein predict that if something eliminated bees from our planet, mankind would perish within 4 years?"
A perfect macro shot :)
Regards,
Zeynep

Gdouble (5245) 2008-05-19 2:44

Hi Ryan,
Fantastic shot.
I hope reseachers will find the explanation and a solution.
Greetings
Guy

danasam (1057) 2008-05-19 3:20

Hi Ryan,

what a shot, wow every thing is excellent about it, contrast, colors and POV. regards.
Sam.

jean11-3 (2799) 2008-05-19 3:30

Hello Ryan,your timing is superb in catching the bee as it comes in to land.
The light on the flower and the bee is excellent.
And a thought provoking title and note.
Tfs, regards Jean.

Dpbours (218) 2008-05-19 3:49

Hi Ryan,

That's interesting!! "colony collapse disorder" (CCD). There we immediately have the link with digital photography - CCD also being an image sensor. ;-)
Bee AIDS... Mad bee disease... But then again, you would be finding dead bees everywhere and as it seems they just vanish entirely! Strange...

Greetings!
Dennis

aadilj (17950) 2008-05-19 4:56

The bees ar having a feast and so are we, when we see such wonderfully composed images that almost trvel out of the frame and hit you. The impact is magnifcent and the colours are superlative

jimkilgallon (0) 2008-05-19 8:27

Hello Ryan

What a perfect capture, funnily enough I was near Albany the other day looking at some rapeseed and didn't notice these 5 beehives nearby which were swarming, bet there would have been 30-60 beehives 15 years or so back. Great capture, looks like he is going to make the perfect landing and the green background looks great to the composition.
Regards
Jim

lucinka (9902) 2008-05-19 9:40

Hi Ryan, what a stunning shot with very intersting story !! Great combination. It is not very usual to see macro shot from you but you have produced first class shot. Amazing capture with beautiful colors. Nice work. Lucie

johnfreeman (2220) 2008-05-19 11:57

Hi Ryan,
Yes, I remember reading recently about the vanishing bees in the US, one of the many alarming current trends in nature.
Anyway this is an impressive shot that takes us straight into the bee’s world. You've obviously chosen the flower head, background and direction of light very carefully. I like the edge lighting on the bee, particularly its legs, as it moves in to land.
Simple but effective and very well captured.
John

pboehringer (770) 2008-05-19 20:44

Ryan,
a very sensitive matter that you are sharing here with us. I got to the same theme during spring and was even planning to go after this more actively but than the beekeepers were to far away from where I live. The dissapearing of the bees is something quite disturbing for the whole Central California agriculture. Just as an example almond trees need bees for the pollination and wihtout bees no almonds. No almonds means no income for a huge amount of farmers and peasants.
I got distracted with the bee cause, sorry but I think that was the purpose of this outstanding shot with a wonderful bouket giving the right focus on the interaction between bee and flora.
Peter

marietom (31782) 2008-05-20 1:19

Hello Ryan,

C'est superbe, j'adore cet insecte sur le point d'atterrir !
Bonne soirée
Marie

lrw1966 (1630) 2008-05-20 6:42

Ryan Hi:
You are exactly right, bee populatioons here are in stark decline without explaination. A wonderful, beautiful image of nature. Congratulations
Larry
United States
TFS!

chpp (3938) 2008-05-20 7:43

Hi Ryan
you should be working fot National geographic :)
great shot catched in the right moment with perfect light and colours and superb quality
really great shot
cheers
C

avene (10894) 2008-05-20 10:16

hello Ryan,
I hope the bees are not doing the "so long and thanks for all the fish" trick of dolphins from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" :)
the timing is absolutely perfect here to illustrate by this very simple composition how important the bees are. the quality is impeccable, this is a great shot.

with best regards,
Kristine

SteveH (3859) 2008-05-26 21:00

Hi Ryan, As someone who has spent a bit of time capturing flying animals, with varying degrees of success. I can imagine the difficulty presented in achieving this image, beautifully sharp and with a fine OOF BG. Cropping is excellent. cheers, Steve

Blairfraser (847) 2008-05-29 4:27

Hi Ryan.

Wow! This is just an amaing picture. Your timing is so good with capturing this bee at a great position. I also love how clear this picture is and the colours stand out really well against the green background.

Very well captured!

Blair

Rodrigues (993) 2008-05-31 15:23

From an social/ecological pov, I think we are getting to a crossroad. It's clear that some sort of important change is on it's way, be it the ecological threat or the end of oil. The question is how will we handle it. I'sure most people don't have a clue.

From a photographiv pov those colours work just fine. The depth is enough for the backgroud to be melted, and the subject to be sharp as it gets.
That 120-300 works as a macro...

rodgerg (23207) 2008-06-02 2:54

Hello Ryan,

An ecologic picture, an intersting note, a real problem.
This photo is superb Good composition and good timing with the bees well located. The colors of flower and of bees are very, very nice.
regards of belgium,
Roger

Cretense (54954) 2008-06-02 9:42

Hi Ryan!

Excellent subject and a major problem that we people haven't realized yet. The problem is bigger in Canada and USA, and now it makes its appearance in Europe, too! We had a story about that in the last edition of the magazine that I work for. Albert Einstein has said that without the bees, humanity wouldn't last more that 4 years, and saying that he was trying to show their importance in the chain of life.

About the photo, no comments! Simply perfect! Congratulations!

Hercules

xkolba (3182) 2008-06-08 4:51

Hi Ryan,
Amazing picture! Great job capturing the motion of the bee. Beautiful colors and excellent moment!
Cheers,
Maciek

diegomach (467) 2008-06-08 20:39

Ryan muy buena fotografía, has captado un estupendo momento de la naturaleza. La textura es perfecta y el contraste estupendo.
Felicitaciones.

brevbrev14 (370) 2008-06-13 5:11

Hi Ryan, beautiful image and great quality!
i like a lot the moment you have captured and the wonderful colours
great blur of background too
are you happy about this lens? it works fine in terms of quality?
ciao!
Valeria

InasiaJones (19860) 2008-06-15 11:57

Hi Wonderyan,

Looking at your stunning shot, it makes me think instantly about the fascinating BBC series including close-up footage of flying bees almost from their own point of view.

This micro shot offers an opportunity to see how wide are your skills and photographic interests. This instant is magic, the bee really frozen in motion, suspended in time. I might be wrong, but the light seems to come from a flash; either natural or artificial, the result is simply riveting.

My last word goes for the background, absolutely awesome.

Cheers!

#5

chrisnet (20354) 2008-06-15 12:11

Hello Ryan,
Fantastic macro shot, the sharpness is excellent, very good and interesting capture.
Best regards

rbcy1974 (20742) 2008-06-16 3:42

Hi Ryan
They are hiding underground and preparing for battle. Did you ever see any of those killer bees films from the 80s?
ANyway the photo is graphically excellent, very well done. Beautiful colours
Regards
Daniel

mphotographies (1976) 2008-06-20 0:35

Hey Ryan,

A wonderful photo 'study' shot. Beautiful background blur, magical close-up of both the flower and the bee, nice result in riotous splashes of natural colour, you handled the tiny fast moving action of the bee!

Best Regards,

Jom

PaulVDV (5068) 2008-06-22 11:52

Hello Ryan,
This is really a great shot with a perfect timing.
The bee and the flower are very sharp and clear against the beautiful green background.
Regards, Paul

toto (18563) 2008-06-26 15:01

Bonsoir,
belle photo de cette abeille qui se frotte les pates en regardant cette fleur au polen intéressant.
Jolie macro, bien nette malgrés le mouvement de la bête( du sans doute a cette assé grande vitesse).

Amitiés Thomas

Signal-Womb (11614) 2008-06-28 5:05

Fantastic capture Ryan! The in-fight bee is just the perfect distance in this composition and the unified green background really enhances the scene. Macro work is somthing I would like to experiment with soon. Best regards Steve.

robiuk (10763) 2008-07-01 11:40

Uh,
Ryan, in your gallery one doesn't know which one to
critique first - almost all your images are so interesting and well presented. I just happened to
(first) chose this insect-related.
Lovely compo and perfect colour contrast.
The green bokeh is amazing.
Robi

totoamoto (2260) 2008-07-17 13:28

Salut Ryan..
Elle est sublime cette photo..
La netteté est incroyable.. Pris prête à atterrir.. Magnifique en plus la fleur est superbe..
Félicitation
Cyril

litiancai (1040) 2008-07-23 19:50

Hi Ryan,
You're clearly a very versatile photographer looking at your gallery, I think it's great and so varied in style! What I'd like to know for this shot is how long did you have to wait for this scene to happen?? Technically, an expert shot in every way, and I like the panoramic crop too.
Thanks for showing, regards
Lee

barni (14437) 2008-10-07 7:03

Hello Ryan
Superbe cette image.
Le flou d'arrière plan est excellent.
Regards
Christophe

Photo Information

Copyright: Ryan Thayne (euryan) (8345)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-05-18
Categories: Nature
Camera: Canon EOS 30D, Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX, Digital ISO 200
Exposure: f/5.0, 1/640 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Manamo's favs of each day of 08 (April,may,june) [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-05-18 20:35
Favorites: 1 [view]