Re: Fun with bees and a macro lens (and my D7000)
Hi Megan.
As the 18-105 is a fairly slow (but still excellent) lens - for this experiment go outside or somewhere with excellent available light. Set your camera in aperture priority, choose the widest aperture available (which I believe is 3.5). In aperture priority the camera will select the shutter speed for you.
Okay, say you want to focus on a flower and blur the background now. With the 18-105 in A mode, set at f/3.5 and a MAX. zoom of 105mm: experiment with getting a blurred background by standing at various distances from your subject. Also try to have your subject moved forward away from any wall or background just to emphasize this effect. So try standing say away from your subject about 10 feet, use MAXIMUM zoom (i.e. extend your lens all the way out to 105mm) and focus and shoot on your subject. Try doing this at varying distances from your subject with the same settings. I think you'll have some results that are closer to what you are looking for.
But I digress.. This your thread.. lol very very pretty 
