I spent the past couple of days at a place called Finca Ixobel in Eastern Guatemala. I planned on spending the time relaxing and catching up on work, but, as it is often the case, I got distracted. The area around Finca Ixobel is full of flowers, butterflies, open fields and even some great caves and tunnels to climb around through. I didn’t expect to take any photos while in Finca Ixobel, but I ended up nearly filling a memory card and keeping a couple dozen photos I am really happy with. This photo was taken from lying down attempting to shoot what’s known as the worm’s eye view of the flower. As I was setting up the composition a bee flew into the scene so I pulled the trigger a quickly as possible.
Bee Landing Area
How I Got this Shot
Laying on my back and using my 70-200mm f/4 lens with one extension tube attached I laid down on my back to shoot upwards on the scene. From that position I was manually focusing the scene when the bee flew in to the picture. Sometimes you just have to react as fast as you can and wish for luck. I spun the focus wheel and fired a couple of shots. Although this photo isn’t exactly in the best focus it has a great atmosphere to it. The lesson for this photo, is sometimes you just have to be lucky.
For the photo nerds this image was shot at 117mm with a shuterspeed of 1/1000 and an aperture of f/4.
OMG! I stayed at Finca Ixobel back in (please hold as I reference old passport) 20 years ago!! It was so out of the way, I remember our taxi got a flat en route in the middle of nowhere and we were stuck….just as the sun was setting a truck appeared on the road – it happened to be the woman who owns Finca Ixobel -she took us the rest of the way, saving us from a night in the jungle with a taxi dude. Finca Ixobel was also where I had the great adventure of jumping off a waterfall in a pitch black dark river cave – did you take that hike to the river cave, is it still accessible? I also remember getting swarmed by mosquitoes as we passed through a cornfield near the property. It seems like one of those places that will never change…but I suppose after 20 years…your experience may have been entirely different!
@Kymri – Finca Ixobel has definitely changed since then. It is much more touristy, but still a great place. The cave is still very swimable and an absolutely amazing time. The mossys weren’t that bad when I was there, but there was definitely the potential for there to be an issue haha. Some things change… Mosquitos never do.
The fact it’s slightly out of focus actually adds a bit of a unique element to the shot. I don’t shoot manually enough myself. Mentioning that you’re lying on your back is significant as well – getting down & dirty often leads to the best shots, I find
Nice try on this and you’re right about the luck side of photography. I too encounter many moments with wildlife and such.