Macro Monday - Carpenter Bee

Another photo from the Contigny Gardens in Wheaten Illinois.  I feasted on photo opportunities while we were up there last week.  


I originally posted this as a Bumble Bee but after some online research will have to correct myself.  Carpenter Bees are quite large and resemble Bumble Bees but have a shiny black abdomen  where Bumble Bees are covered in black and yellow hair.  While I realize that very few readers will give a flip what sort of bee this is, I like to be accurate where I can.  Thank you for your patience.


Several of you asked what sort of macro lens I used for some of these photos. The camera I use is a Canon SX20 IS. While not an SLR, it has a 20X zoom lens which is the 35mm equivalent of 28-560mm and a resolution of 12.1 Megapixels. This gives me the capability of an SLR with multiple lenses at a cost under $400.


As some of you already know I am mobility challenged and take most of my photographs either from my automobile or from a power wheelchair.  The Canon 20X allows me to shoot what looks like closeups from distances of 10 feet or more.  This bumblebee shot was taken from my power chair at a distance of about 3 feet simply by zooming in on it.  If I need to be closer there is a macro setting that will allow me to really get close.  However, feeding insects will not generally hold still for that sort of business.


The zoom lets me get pretty close and the 12 Megapixel resolution will let me get by with a certain amount of cropping to get in even closer to the center of interest.  Once the images are on my PC I use Paint.net for cropping and adjusting the exposure and color saturation.  A hard core photographer might use Photoshop but Paint.net is free.  Need I say more?