Wasp and Nest

STM

Senior Member
I have been watching this wasp and two others build this nest outside our front door for about a week now. I wanted to wait until the nest was large enough to photograph. There was only one wasp here today, no idea where the other two were. He was a little sluggish so I had to coax him a bit to get him to crawl to the top of the nest. The lighting was not all that great and I needed a small aperture to ensure everything was in sharp focus so I used my ring flash at f/32 attached to the front of my 55mm f/2.8 AIS Nikkor.

waspnest_zpsb39efe12.jpg
 
Last edited:

WeeHector

Senior Member
Beautiful shot, wonderfully in focus. I love it.

PS: Watch out, those three may turn into 300 very quickly.:)
 
Last edited:

crycocyon

Senior Member
Wow, it almost looks like a model of a wasp, so perfect. Dang, you were shooting with a 55? That close? You got guts. I've been stung enough that I keep a safe distance from those kinds of insects. If they are sluggish could be that it isn't warm enough for them.
 

STM

Senior Member
Wow, it almost looks like a model of a wasp, so perfect. Dang, you were shooting with a 55? That close? You got guts. I've been stung enough that I keep a safe distance from those kinds of insects. If they are sluggish could be that it isn't warm enough for them.

Trust me, warm is not a problem. I live in NW FL and it is already 86º degrees here. The front of the ring flash was about 2 1/2" or so from the nest. I am far more wary of yellow jackets than wasps. When I was 8 I stepped on an in in-ground nest (yes, not all bees make hives) of those ornery bastids and was stung/bitten over 30 times. Had I been sensitized to them I might not be here to tell the tale. Whenever I see in-ground yellow jacket nests I pour gasoline down them and torch them. Paybacks are hell!
 

STM

Senior Member
Beautiful shot, wonderfully in focus. I love it.

PS: Watch out, those three may turn into 300 very quickly.:)

This is actually the second nest. My wife destroyed the first one with a broom. I asked her to leave this one alone (!) until I had time to photograph it!
 

ShallowShannon

Senior Member
While outside this evening playing with the dog I found a nest and thought about this thread. So I grabbed the camera and with it in outstretched shaking arms tried a close up. I gotta hand it to ya, I get nervous around those things and after getting buzzed a few times this was the best I could do. The nest was inside an old sea shell that's been in the yard a while.

 
Top