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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clovishound" data-source="post: 821147" data-attributes="member: 50197">First off, and this is not a criticism, neither of these two images are what I would call closeups. Both pictures have a lot of elements that are in focus. Even with the distance from the subject, and using a wide angle focal length, you are unable to get everything front to back in focus with the distance between the nearest elements and the farthest. Using a smaller aperture will increase the depth of field, but only to a point. You can achieve everything in focus with a technique called "focus stacking". If you aren't familiar with it, multiple images with different focus points are combined into a single image, with the software picking the portions that are in focus. You will need something like Photoshop, or another program capable of focus stacking, sometimes called focus bracketing. You can use any digital camera with adjustable focus to take the images, then process them as a stack. That is a technique for another day, though, just something to keep in mind for later. I occasionally use it, but not often.The bee is out of focus because the camera was focused somewhere in the middle of the bush, and the bee was on a branch much closer to the camera and outside the depth of field zone. Again, limited depth of field is a fact of life with closeup photography. It is sometimes a detrimental issue that you try to mitigate. It sometimes is a positive element of the image, drawing the eye to a particular point of interest. I would suggest starting off with single flowers. They are frequently large enough to be able to fill the frame with the lens you have as it is. The other advantage is they don't move unless there is wind. You can also try different angles, lighting, apertures, using a tripod etc and see how they do. You aren't necessarily looking to make great images, but to learn and develop techniques.</blockquote>

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