This article features a selection of images of bees captured handheld with the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom lens.

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A couple of days ago I decided to use my M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom lens to photograph bees in my yard.

And… just for some added fun… I used my M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter for a good number of my image captures.

On the surface this choice of lens/teleconverter combination may seem a bit odd since the M.Zuiko 150-600 is fairly large and comparatively heavy.

The reality is that this combination is well suited to this particular subject matter… as long as a photographer has a sufficient amount of light.

On the wide end of the zoom range, the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 has a minimum focusing distance of only 59 centimetres (~22.2 inches) when the M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter is used. This makes the M.Zuiko 150-600 very flexible for close-up photography when in the field.

For the majority of the images in this article I was sitting on a short stool in my backyard, and photographing bees as they came in to gather pollen from a large grouping of echinacea  plants.

As I spotted suitable subject bees, I could quickly adjust my focal length by using the very smooth push/pull action of the M.Zuiko 150-600 zoom lens.

Using the MC-20 teleconverter does cause a loss of 2 stops of light, as well as 2 stops of image stabilization. Fortunately the Sync-IS in the M.Zuiko 150-600 is excellent, adding to the in-field flexibility of this lens.

Sync-IS enabled me to use a shutter speed of 1/640 when using an equivalent field-of-view of 1898 mm for the image above. I could have shot at a slower shutter speed, but I needed to allow for subject movement. If you check the EXIF data you’ll see that I was 2.8 metres away (~9.2 feet) from the subject bee and was still able to capture the bee at a reasonable size in my composition.

Using a longer focal length also helps to soften details in the background, as you can see on the right hand side in the image above.

From my seated position I was able to identify a number of individual blossoms that provided shooting angles that gave me smooth, monochromatic backgrounds for my compositions.

After capturing a sufficient number of bees perched on blossoms, I decided to photograph bees in-flight using Pro Capture H.

Since I was getting some useable images of bees in-flight, I initially kept shooting with the M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter in place.

With a shutter speed of 1/2500, using this 2X teleconverter was often pushing my ISO up to ISO-6400,  with some images being underexposed at that ISO value.

So I decided to remove the MC-20 to save some light. This allowed me to shoot at a maximum of f/6.3.

When possible I always prefer capturing a subject in-flight. I love the feeling of movement and anticipation that these action images can convey.

I find that compositions of bees in-flight that include flower buds can add some interesting environmental context to an image.

Sometimes we can habitually grab a specific piece of kit like a macro lens, for subjects like bees.

There are times when a longer focal length zoom lens provides us with more in-field flexibility. Especially if that lens has a comparatively short minimum focusing distance.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,473 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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