Cameras/Gear  

We are fortunate that modern cameras, including cell phones, do most of the technical work for us. Today’s cameras automatically adjust shutter speed, exposure, focus, etc. Many cameras also have a close-up or macro setting. Make your job easier and take advantage of the automatic settings! It is likely that whatever camera you already have will provide acceptable results. Remember, the photos do not have to be great quality to be useful, although the more detail the better.

(Two different observations of a Peridot Sweat Bee (Augochlorella pomoniella). Both photos are identifiable to species, but with very different detail and resolution.)

Here are some considerations that apply mostly to people using dedicated cameras (as opposed to cell phones):

• Macro/close-up capability is a must.

• Some long lenses (200 mm+) take good close-ups.

• A sensor in the 15-20 MB range seems to work well.

• Fast autofocus with good auto exposure is necessary.

• Burst mode/function is helpful, and GPS stamp function is also beneficial.

• Bring extra batteries and check for plenty of room on your memory card.

• Best to start each survey day with an empty camera card. Make sure your camera date and time are correctly set.

• Clean your lenses if necessary.

Finding the Bees

It is truly amazing how much bee activity is happening right under our noses when we are out on the local trails! Even avid and experienced hikers are often unaware of the fascinating miniature world of bees that usually surrounds them. Many species are quite wary and busy foraging for food or looking for mates. They usually seem reluctant to pose for photographs, so you need to be able to get a photograph quickly. You have to know where they hang out in order to increase your chances of seeing them. To state the obvious, you have to find a bee before you can photograph it. Here are a few pointers to increase your odds of finding bees:

• Look for wildflowers.

• Big flower patches and healthy plants tend to attract the most bees.

• Unusual plants or rare plants deserve a special look. Some rare bees only forage on rare plants.

• The same flowers may have different species depending on the time of day, i.e., early morning versus late afternoon.

• Double-check anything that seems even a bit out of place in a flower. It might be a resting/sleeping or hiding bee, even if it does not look like an insect at first glance.

• Some bees rest on leaves and stems and the ground.

• Take your time; don’t rush. Be slow, systematic, and deliberate; stop and look and get close.

• Don’t worry about getting stung; they would much prefer to leave you alone, wasps included.

• Many bees nest in ground burrows. It’s fantastic to get a photo of a bee entering or leaving its burrow.

Learn to Recognize Bees

Scores of native bee species can be found in our coastal sage/scrub habitat. With so many species and different life histories, it is difficult to make generalizations about recognizing them. One of the most useful skills is to learn to quickly identify honey bees, and then train yourself to ignore them. Some native bees are rather “cryptic” due to their small size or shy behavior, so they can go unnoticed to the unfocused observer. Try to keep the following points in mind to help you stay focused on native bees and avoid missing them:

• Honey bees are deliberate and methodical when foraging. Native bees tend to behave more erratically and unpredictably when foraging. Natives tend to be more “hyper” than honey bees. Honey bees can be ignored most of the time, except sometimes their presence may indicate flowers with nectar and pollen attractive to less abundant native bees. So, if a bush is full of honey bees, scan for any “oddballs.”

• Native bees come in all sizes and are usually brown, gray, or black. Many are small (<5 mm); a few are huge. Most are smaller than honey bees.

• Small flowers often have small bees.

• Native bees may or may not have bands on the abdomen.

• Look for movement, including movement in ground shadows. Sometimes, you will first see a faint streak in a bush. Try to follow any blurred movement to a flower in the direction the bee was moving.

• Some bees visit each flower for only a fraction of a second.

• Practice being quickly responsive with your camera, pre-focus your camera on a nearby leaf or flower. 

• Try to anticipate where the bee is heading. If one bee is frightened away, you may get a second chance. Quietly WAIT without moving. A frightened bee may return, or you can try to follow its direction of travel to the next plant or flower.

• It’s OK to stare/scan at a flowering plant for 1 or 2 minutes. You will be surprised at how much bee activity emerges that is not apparent at first glance.

• Some bees forage in pairs or small groups. Look for its “friends.”

• Some are wasp-like so take photos of “wasps,” too.

• Some flies may look like bees, especially to the naked eye. But flies have different antennae (much shorter and sometimes club-like), and larger eyes. Foraging behavior is also different.

Getting Good Shots

Bees are nearly always on the move, and it is easy miss a shot, especially if you are fussing with your camera settings. So, let the camera do much of the hard work for you, in particular the focusing and exposure settings. But there are some things that you can do to increase the chance of getting photos that are useful, and with a bit of practice, you will get some fantastic shots:

• Honey bees are good for practice because they are everywhere and do not frighten easily.

• Learn to take one-handed shots if you have a small camera or macro lens. This will allow you to get closer to the subject with less disturbance.

• Hold the camera STILL while you take photos.

• Get as close as you can. Start taking photos at a distance (especially with a long lens). Slowly move in closer, and switch to macro if the bee stays around.

• Learn to quickly and accurately aim your camera at a specific bee.

• The best photo conditions are calm, bright, and sunny. Wind and shadows ruin many photos.

• Always be aware of your own shadow and work around it. If the wind is blowing, you might be able to hold the branch still or wait till the wind momentarily dies down.

Lighting and Distance

Many bees will be frightened away before you can get in close enough for a macro shot, so start shooting from the furthest distance that provides useful detail for identification. With different cameras and lenses that distance will vary, but with a long lens somewhere around 3+ feet starts to provide useful resolution. Also, in conditions of poor lighting (i.e. thick marine layer), you will have to get closer than normal to get adequate detail.

• Direct sun over your shoulder is excellent lighting. It gives a better depth of focus, but your shadow can be problematic.

• A good alternative is for the sun to be from the side. I often try to approach a new bush/plant this way. Try to avoid backlighting, but take the shot(s) if that is all you can get; at least your shadow is not an issue.

• Cloudy days are a challenge. If you do not cast a shadow, the photos will be less detailed.

• Flash or fill-in lighting? The fill-in feature usually does not help much, so I typically don’t bother. But if a bee is deep in a flower (or in poor lighting), it is worth a try.

• The closer, the better (1-4 inches from the subject is ideal for macro).

• Start taking photos at a distance (~3 feet with a long lens) because you may frighten the bee away before you can get real close.

• Some individuals (and species) are shy; others allow very close photos. If the bee allows you to move in, you may switch cameras to macro.

Take Lots of Shots

Different bees have different physical characteristics that allow the experts to tell one species from the next. The best way to increase the chance of telling the species is to get photos from as many different angles as you can, so stay with a bee and keep taking photos of it. This will also increase your chance of getting a random photo when the wind momentarily dies down, reducing the movement blur. You can cull the bad ones and the duplicates later. Bear in mind:

• Work to get different angles.

• The bee may move around a flower, providing different angles without moving the camera. 

• A small change in camera position may give a very different angle at close range.

• Follow the bee around to different flowers for different angles.

• Close-up photos with sharp focus from several different angles can make the difference between identifying the bee to species level or not:

When You Get Back Home

Plan on spending some time with your photos when you get back home. A little effort before uploading them to iNat will pay dividends to the success of the survey:

• More than half of the photos may not be usable.

• I often only keep about 10% of the day’s shots.

• Try to have an entire body in the image.

• It is useful if the plant can be identified in the picture.

• I crop virtually every bee photo: 

Resolution/focus Guidelines

The definition of a good bee photo is quite subjective, but it is useful to have some idea of what to expect from our bee photos. As an added bonus, you will find that some of your bee photos will have artistic merit and that can be personally satisfying, but that is not particularly important to the survey. So, aim for good resolution and detail, but remember that even poor quality photos can be very useful to the survey, and submit every observation that can be identified as a possible bee:

• Good resolution/focus is when individual pollen grains are viewed. The cropped file size is usually about 1 MB. This level of resolution is not necessary, but it is a good goal to set.

• Very good resolution shows individual hairs and sharp pollen grains.

• Excellent resolution is when eye facets can be seen (may need to zoom in). The cropped file size is usually about 5+ MB.

Photo Editing

You may wonder: “should I edit my bee photos”? The answer is complicated. Some minor editing may improve the visible detail, and that can be beneficial. For example, if a photo is underexposed, using the “lighten” function can reveal details on a black bee body. It is also helpful to crop out surrounding vegetation or background, but include enough of the host plant to identify it. It is very important not to change the color tint or use filters that distort any aspect of the image. If you edit your photos, do it cautiously and judiciously:

• Your camera automatically edits ALL photos; just compare “raw” files to PDF files to see how much it is changed.

• I judiciously use Photoshop or LightRoom “sharpen” and “Auto Smart Fix” functions. Sometimes it helps, but other times I discard those edits. These can be useful functions but will not turn a bad photo into a good one or a good one into a very-good one.

All photos © Tom Barnes

If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me at j.thomas.barnes1@gmail.com