Photo by Nic Freeman
Honey Bee on Lavender
Since retiring from a career in Photojournalism in 2024, I’ve found a quiet sense of solitude in gardening, discovering a renewed passion for capturing all of the flowers growing within my garden. This little honeybee photobombed the scene as I was trying to capture imagery of my Lavender flowers. Disregarding composition, I took the image before the bee had a chance to fly off. It’s a simple scene, but so much of what we grow thrives because of these tiny insects. A small unexpected detail, yet a big reminder that so much of our survival is reliant on this one simple act of nature. So I honour this bee taking ‘his Lavender tea’ like our existence depends on it.
Post processing notes:
The photo was taken on the 24th August 2024 and recently re-edited in On One Photo Raw 2026.4 after I was inspired by the recently released Macro tutorial, which I followed in part noting my original image was a jpeg. It was taken on my Canon EOS R6m2, using the EF adaptor, Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro USM lens, ISO 2500, shutter speed 1/160th, no exposure compensation or flash. Taken mid-afternoon, my lavender sits in the shade of my house, I felt the image needed warming up. My workflow included a slight crop, the AI De-noise feature, healing tool (for a few minor blemishes on the lavender), tone and colour, dynamic contrast (surreal) on the bee and for the background, depth lighting/glow/contrast adjustments, sun flare texture and colour enhancements.Exif information:
| Copyright: | Nic Freeman |
| Camera: | Canon EOS R6m2 |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Focal Length: | 100mm |
| ISO: | 1000 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/250 sec. |
| Created: | August 24, 2024 15:24:46 |