Seems like only yesterday I was shooting at my studio with no problems or complications. Now, that I think about it our intern Andrea and I went there on Monday. On our way out we noticed a small number of bees buzzing around the front door. There really weren’t that many of them not even enough to consider calling a swarm.

Well today I setup a studio shoot with RIS Design they brought over a tricked out drag bike we hauled it over to the studio and ran into a little problem. The bees that I noticed the other day multiplied by ten thousand at least and completely took over the entire bush that stands less then five feet from the door of my studio.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid of bees at all, but it doesn’t matter one sting and it’s off to the ER for me. I ponied up and grabbed my camera for a couple quick photos. After reviewing my shots I was a little unhappy with my results. The bee hive was nestled inside the bush and sat in the shade, which didn’t really help when trying to take a good picture to share of those buzzing killers.

So I did what any grown photographer would do and I lit the buggers up with my trusty Nikon SB800 flash triggered by a pocket wizard. I know what some of you are thinking, “OVERKILL.” Not really I wanted to setup my Elinchroms and really heat things up. When those things go pop they put out some heat but I figured I would play nice and stick with something smaller.

I dashed in as quick as possible, placed the flash within a couple feet of the hive on the floor and zoomed out of there faster then a falling drop of honey. The flash worked great I shot the photos with my Nikkor 300mm f2.8 lens connected to my Nikon D3 camera body. That lens kept me back far enough away from danger and for added insurance Tony from RIS stood guard, spotting me just incase the bees started to move towards me.

When I arrived home I told Mike Calabro our crazy adventure nut about the story and he laughed and said “I would of used a 10mm lens to shoot that.” Mike have fun with that 10mm lens of yours I’ll stick with my 300mm and live to shoot another day.