I’m still playing with close up photography with flash. Off the camera this time. This little running cactus on our front stoop - placed there by @cara.stacey - didn’t flower at all the first few years we were here but now is running colours up the mast it seems like every two or three months.
And here she is: the African Honey Bee. Known in the USA as the African Killer Bee (they’re a lot more venomous than European or American honey bees. You do not want to piss off a swarm of them). I came so close to nailing focus on this one. Insect photography is hard.
I think this is a bee of some kind. I’m not sure how many South Africans realise we have many different kinds of bees besides honey bees.
Doing a bit of close-up photography with flash for the first time really. I had more ambitious plans which fell apart but this on-camera flash with a tiny soft box was actually a great introduction. ISO and aperture darkened the ambient light so that the flash did most of the work isolating these flowers against darkness. Kirstenbosch naturally an ideal place to experiment.