[Leps-l] Tips for filming pollinator behavior video in the wild - flight, foraging, mating

[Jeffrey D Karron]

Hi Everyone:

I recently produced a 9 minute video that uses extensive slow motion cinematography to capture several bumble bee species in flight, foraging, grooming pollen, mating, and searching for nest sites.   I have used this same setup to film butterfly behavior, and therefore thought this might be of interest.

Here is a link to the video in case you haven't seen it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQsnPAWQqcI

Several researchers have asked me to describe how I captured such high resolution macro video at ¼ normal speed.   Here is a brief summary, but please feel free to email me if you have additional questions.

My students and I shoot video with the Canon Full Frame R5 mirrorless camera.   This camera produces very high quality 4k video at 120 fps.   Since I present the video at 30 fps, this is ¼ normal speed.

Most closeups were shot at 400 mm with Canon's RF 100-400 mm telephoto zoom lens.   I shoot with a telephoto lens, rather than a macro lens, so that I can capture images of bees visiting flowers 3-4 meters away.    I use single point autofocus.  The 4k video is so detailed that I can further crop the image to provide an even narrower field of view.  So I typically do 30-50% video crops using  Powerdirector 365 software to fill the frame with bee and flower.

Our wetland study site is ½ mile from Lake Michigan, and there is always at least a 15 kmph wind.  Fortunately the R5 camera has outstanding in-camera stabilization, ensuring smooth telephoto video.  We shoot most of our video handheld, but sometimes use a monopod on very windy days.

One thing we do a bit differently than most people shooting slow motion video is that we use a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th sec to minimize motion blur.  Thats why you can see the bumble bee wings flapping so clearly.

Again, please feel free to email me if you have further questions about the use of slow motion video in field studies of animal behavior.

Sincerely,

Jeff Karron
Professor of Biology
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
karron at uwm.edu
Www.karronlab.com<http://www.karronlab.com/>

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