As some of you probably know, when it comes to photography, nothing inspires me, motivates me and talks to me more than seeing and capturing an image of Mother Nature doing its thing without caring about our human problems. There's just something so satisfying about watching wild animals living their lives, waiting for minutes, hours, days, weeks to get the perfect shot, and then finally getting it. And if the picture can be funny, then it's an added bonus!

After the gators and the birds, and since May 20 was World Bees Day, I figured it was time to share some of my favorite bugs and crawlers pictures! I unfortunately do not have a macro lens, nor do I have the budget to invest in one at the moment, so I try to work around that with what I have. This means I can't get as close to small subjects as I would like, and I can't get as much detail without losing too much quality, but I still manage to get a nice shot or two once in a while!

Brace For Impact
Lumix G7 - 150mm - f/5.6 - 1/2500s - ISO 800

I am fortunate enough to live near a park close that has rows of cherry trees, so when Spring hit, I just knew I had to spend some time there with my camera! I went around midday, when I figured the bees would be out and about in the cherry blossoms, and they did not disappoint, it was buzzing all around me. I love the movement of this bumblebee's wings in this shot. I've been trying to work on making my pictures more interesting, going away from basic portrait and adding some depth, context and/or movement, and I think I did just that for this picture. When shooting flying bugs, you need to be able to snap your pictures fast. This means burst mode and high shutter speed. Shooting in midday, the sunlight was very bright. This is usually a problem, because  direct sunlight is not the prettiest light, but it allowed me to bump up my shutter speed enough to catch a "still" bumblebee with blurry wings.

Fluffy Butt
Lumix G7 - 150mm - f/5.6 - 1/800s - ISO 800

I took this picture on the same day as the first one, among the beautiful cherry blossoms. I am not sure what animal that is, it did not look fluffy enough to be a bumblebee and was too orange to be a honeybee... If you have an idea, please let me know!

Attack On Titan
Lumix G7 - 14mm - f/3.5 - 1/640s - ISO 800

I have never read or watched Attack on titan, but it's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this beetle climbing this ant infested branch. Unfortunately, due to a lack of better lens, I could not get a great shot in the conditions I was in, and this one has a lot of noise... But I still like the story it tells!

When The Bells Of Spring Are Ringing
Lumix G7 - 150mm - f/5.6 - 1/200s - ISO 200

In French, this flower (common snowdrop) is called "perce neige", literally "snow piercer", because it is the first flowers that bloom at the end of winter. I just laid down in my garden next to these flowers and waited with my camera for bees to come. I love how you can see the pollen on the bee's hairs, the yellow dots glowing in the sun.

Brace For Impact #2
Lumix G7 - 150mm - f/5.6 - 1/200s - ISO 200

Since I was comfortable and satisfied with the location and light around this flower, I actually took a whole series of pictures of this bee arriving at the flower, smelling it, "landing" on it, climbing on it and so on. These are my two favorite ones, and I decided to share them both because I could not decide on which one was the best! I think they both tell interesting stories on their own, and complete each other pretty well when seen together.

Spring Cleaning
Lumix G7 - 150mm - f/6.3 - 1/320s - ISO 400

Not a bug, but a beautiful spider I saw in Florida while looking for alligators in a swamp. I am not sure what type of spider it was, but the web was rather big and I thought the scene was interesting, seeing it try to "clean" its home.

Let me know which picture is your favorite! If you want to see more wildlife photography, you can head over to my instagram @pierre__lizet. Finally, all of these, and more, are available to download and use (in high quality and unbranded) on Shutterstock, Getty and Adobe Stock.

---

Any kind of support, even a simple "like", is truly appreciated and helps me grow and create more quality content for you to enjoy.
Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/piliz
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PierreLizetVideo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PierreLizet
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pierre__lizet

Enjoy one free random stock (no deposit required) by signing up here: https://join.robinhood.com/nathaln-81f11a

And if you are new to Publish0x, it is a blogging platform where you get paid for reading articles! You can join using this link to support me: https://www.publish0x.com?a=Vyb8NjLevA