A special delivery last week rounded out the most glaring hole in my camera setup – a macro lens. I invested in a Canon 100mm 2.8, which I’ve used previously when a friend lent me the lens back in October. It opens up a whole different world of potential in photography, and makes even our basic garden a goldmine of potential photos. Here’s a couple from my first 15 minute outdoor session with the lens. Enjoy!
While her friends were busily tending their communal nest, she watched the photographer with interest...
"Ignore me, I'm just another bit of debris... I won't eat you!"
David Robertson 
I hate you. :D
Is it the IS model ?
Let’s go do a macro session in the bush next to the uni ! :D
No, it’s not the IS model, that was well out of my price range. It looks super awesome though, would make ambient light macro so much more feasible.
And yeah, macro session for sure! Without an external flash I’d be a bit limited in low light, though I might try to come up with a dodgy home-made diffuser… this weekend sometime?
They look like native allodapine bees?
I like you’re macro work!
Tim
I’m hopeless with insect ID – I got to Hymenoptera and that’s about as far as I could go, haha. They looked wasp-like but I’m aware that native bees look nothing like their imported counterparts! It was what looked like a semi-social nest, maybe two dozen individuals tending a similar amount of larvae.
That sounds like Allodapine bees – they’re often semi social and you’re right, they look nothing like the imports. There’s a species in SA that has a shovel-like bit on their rear that they use.. it’s a funny group. One species I studied from Vic, I used a microscope to take a good picture of them! lol Certainly not a good as your photos!