I've Been Workin' on the Allium;
All the Live-Long Day

I planted a set of Allium bulbs years ago, and although I no longer
remember the species, they get better and better every year. The bees
love them too. I shot a couple of dozen in this set, and this was one
of the better ones. Those bees had a habit of turning their back on
me.

I don't usually use an aperture this wide with extension tubes, but I
wanted a little more bokeh in the background. Because I was
handholding (and it was a little breezy), I took the ISO to 400 for
the extra shutter speed. Following my habit in cases like this, I set
the focus manually to the closest distance, moved in until the bee was
in focus, pulled back slightly and let the AF do its job from there.

By the way, I would also take this opportunity to plug this lens. It
is the Canon 50mm f1.4 "prime" lens. This is a middle-of-the-road lens
in both "quality" and price, but the results are usually quite good.
It has its limitations, but for low-light work and this kind of macro
work with extension tubes, it is really quite good. And it was 1/3 the
cost of some of my other fancy lenses.

Canon 1DmkIII; EF50mm f1.4; f11; ISO-400; 1/500-sec; -1/3ev; w. 12mm
Extension Tube.
e-mail: blissful-wind(at)usa.net

Additional images at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-pa/