Tips for filming video of bumble bee flight, foraging, grooming, nest searching in the wild

[Jeffrey Karron]

Hi Everyone:

I recently produced a 9 minute video that uses extensive slow motion cinematography to capture several species of Bombus in flight, foraging, grooming pollen and searching for nest sites. Here is a link to the video in case you haven't seen it   https://youtu.be/fQsnPAWQqcI

Several researchers have asked me to describe how I captured such high resolution macro video at ¼ normal speed.   Here is a brief summary, but feel free to email me if you have additional questions. My preferred email is      kar...@uwm.edu

My students and I shoot video with the Canon Full Frame R5 mirrorless camera.   This camera produces very high quality 4k video at 120 fps.   Since I present the video using the "US standard" 30 fps, this is ¼ normal speed.  

Most closeups were shot at 400 mm with Canon's RF 100-400 mm telephoto zoom lens.   I shoot with a telephoto lens, rather than a macro lens, so that I can capture images of bees visiting flowers 3-4 meters away.  The 4k video is so detailed that I can further crop the image to provide an even narrower field of view.  So I typically do 30-50% video crops using  Powerdirector 365 software to fill the frame with bee and flower.  

Our study site is ½ mile from Lake Michigan, and there is always at least a 10 mph wind.  Fortunately the R5 camera has outstanding in-camera stabilization, ensuring smooth telephoto video.  We shoot most of our video handheld, but sometimes use a monopod on very windy days.

One thing we do a bit differently than most people shooting slow motion video is that we use a shutter speed of 1/1000th sec to minimize motion blur.  Thats why you can see the bumble bee wings flapping so clearly.

Sincerely,

Jeff Karron

Professor of Biology

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

kar...@uwm.edu

[Marcia Motta Maues]

Wow... so beautiful!! Thank you for sharing!

Warm regards,

Márcia Motta Maués

Pesquisadora do Laboratório de Entomologia (Ecologia da Polinização)

Curadora da Coleção Entomológica

Embrapa Amazônia Oriental - CPATU

Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa)

marcia.maues@embrapa.br |  ORCID 0000-0003-2270-5944 

Trav. Dr. Enéas Pinheiro s/n, Belém - PA, Brasil. CEP 66.095-903

+55 (91) 3204-1033 | + 55 (91) 3204-1043

https://www.embrapa.br/amazonia-oriental  

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