[Irma]

Few weeks ago I offered myself to take pictures of an exhibition about how honey is produced for a Club of bee keepers. Today I gave my pictures and talked about bigger projects to help this club with my photography...

Here are some of my images.

#1
The meeting before the event.



#2
The smoke was ready to make the bees go out of the box. They say that when the bees feel and smell the smoke think that the honeycomb is burning so they take some honey to survive and leave. Some of them have to be removed with a feather.





#3
Here they are showing to the kids the wooden frames with the bees. It was a very interesting explanation. Some kids were a bit afraid at the beginning but this man explained to them how to behave with the bees so they will not be afraid or stress.



#4
They took the wooden frames inside to remove the wax and place the wooden frames in a centrifuge to extract the honey. This device works manually.



#5
They let us try to honey from the honeycomb... It was so delicious...



#6
At the end they gave to the kids a little jar with honey to take home.



I like the idea of helping this group of bee keepers with pictures. It will be a very interesting experience.

The next meeting will be to take pictures of a bee keeper working with the boxes and the bees in the fields. The first thing I thought was how will I take pictures with that hat with the net in front of my face?!... They say I don't need it... I think the best will be to take my pictures with my 400mm... and keep in safety distance...

Thanks for looking...

[Toad]

What an excellent story! I really feel that you did a great job walking us through the process and your photos supported the text really well.

I am really liking all of the activity in the Photo Stories and Journalism forum these days.

[nia]

WOW! Dear Irma, this seems it was a great fun! I loved it. But the first photograph so beautiful so sympathetic so familiar... I loved everything in this photograph. All details and the colours... I stayed in there Well done, especially with the children, this is a wonderful project.

Thank you,
Have a nice day,
with my love,
nia

[Irma]

Thanks Toad, sometimes the text is the thing that hinders me a bit from posting in photo stories & journalism. I am not so fluent writing as I am speaking...

Thanks nia, part of the exhibition took place in the museum of the village. The museum is an old house of a blacksmith. It shows all kind of tools for this activity and the life style of the 1800's.

The locals are keen on performing these events to promote the museum and learn about their own traditions, as well as interest kids and young parents to save the bees and become bee keepers...

[Zig]

Absolutely first-rate Irma. I agree with Toad that you've made a real success of talking us through this. I think you've achieved this success in many of the following ways:
I just love the clear and educational development of images and clear, concise text: by the end of the sequence, I had both learnt something and found that learning a pleasurable experience;
Your use of text is excellent. You yourself might feel that you're exploring English as a second language...but actually you are being clear and informative: there are no additional or creative figures of speech here: and this form of writing would suffer if there were any! To my English ear, your text comes across as faintly "Germanic" but for all the right reasons of cleanness, clarity and precision....you have chosen just the right register for this piece of work. Any additional figures of speech would have been inappropriate to this style of writing.
And of course the images: wonderful: What is particularly impressive is that you show a development in character of the youngsters over these shots: at first, the children are at a distance from the viewer and showing anxiety...yet by the end, your shots are closer, showing more engagement by the children and thus you convey their obvious fascination and interest. Brilliant!
Not only that, but you have taken these shots almost at the children's viewpoint, enabling the viewer to identify with them and their learning experience.
Nia mentioned words also that I entirely agree with: "sympathetic" and "familiar": you do indeed take the shots with a feeling for the people in them, and their fascination(and education) becomes ours. I think it's excellent how the children have moved from fear or anxiety to interest, engagement and fascination. I also think your choice of lenses and viewpoints has really been central to conveying all you wished to convey, and in the most successful way too.
Yes, first-rate, completely engaging and eminently successful.
I would love to know more, if you have time, about the challenges you faced and the decisions you made doing this piece of work...?

[Irma]

Thank you very much Zig... You didn't make my day, You Made my Week!!!

At the beginning I really didn't know how the event would develop, I only knew it would be in the museum and part of it would be in the gardens of the house. Easy decision for my photo gear... My zoom 24mm-105mm in my 5D for outside because I have more info to crop my image and correct perspective, it was a very sunny day so if I had to fill with light in post processing some hard shadows they wouldn't be that noisy. My 50mm in the 350 for indoor close ups. I also had the G9 in my pocket just in case.

I offered them pictures of the event, I really saw a friendly environment, interesting kids, I thought my pictures could be used as a visual invitation for the next exhibition. My friend briefed me about how the exhibition would develop and the important steps in the process. I started thinking my own story, seeing what the moderator was doing and taking pictures of each steps always leaving room to crop and compose. I wanted my pictures to look as if the viewer was part of the event.

I thought about showing pictures of these three steps, but then I thought that if I simplified them, I could have all in one image and I did this. Still I don't know if this triptych could be improved in some other way.




I was all the time circulating around ... When I saw that they were repeating some steps again, I went out and took pictures from the street, so I could capture as well the event from the outside.

I like this picture because it looks how someone passing by would see the event...



My pictures inside the museum were with my 50mm, f1,8, iso 400, 1/125 and the problem there was that I was in the middle of the crowd, no chance to move around to open my image and with a lot of people pushing!!! here I had real problems... I couldn't take anything of the inside of the centrifuge for example, but I think the image of the kid working with the machine helps to illustrate this step. Here I don't know what to do to improve my photography and the chances to get better pictures without flash.

When we were leaving I saw the little jars to give to the kids, and I say my friend, I can't leave with this picture, this is the perfect end of the story!

And when I see that last picture and I imagine one of those kids having this honey in his morning bread, and talking about the great experience she/he had, and all that has to be done to have a jar of honey in the table.

I got some very funny pictures of the kids licking all his fingers, but I left all funny pictures out. I took three hundred and I made my series with 36 with only one or two from each step.

I only learned that they have accepted my proposal of making a calender. I will be taking pictures though out the whole year, so by this time next year I should have already 12 pictures with all activities a bee keeper does in the year.... I am very excited about the calender project...

Thanks so much for your interest Zig...

[Zig]

Thank you so much for all this detail Irma; the calendar sounds a great idea and I'm delighted they accepted it: I can see that being a very enjoyable challenge, connecting all the months of the year with bee-keeping..yet presumably enabling it to be accessible and informative for everyone.
Yes, those contrasty conditions could be difficult, couldn't they? Do you ever use the shadows/highlights menu in Photoshop? I wonder if duplicating as a layer, playing with and exploring the shadows/highlights tab then experimenting with the amount of opacity of the layer...if this would help fill some of the shadows with detail? Just a thought.
The triptych works really well; perhaps you could have included the whole of both hands?...the right hand is doing an action that will be unfamiliar to viewers, so maybe this would attract more attention to the hand that is brushing the honeycombs?
Yes, the 24-105 would seem to be perfect, allowing you to quickly react to different viewpoints and actions.
Thank you for your time and trouble to provide the additional details!

[NT73]

The kid with 'scrumptious' on her hat is the one for me, but only with the series. On it's own it misses the honey in the shot.
A very interesting series. The tryptich works for me, along with your English.
I have seen the honeycombs and beehives before, but as to how they process it I never got involved. I remember watching some S. American indians (on TV) climbing trees with a burning handful of grass to get the combs, and the bees going nutty. And the children below eating the honey, comb and any stray bee that happened to be on it.

[Irma]

Zig, thanks for your comment about including both hands. I took pictures today of a beekeeper in the fields, and I remembered your comment, in these pictures I have included two hands and they look much better... Great advice...

NT..Thanks a lot for your comment! You gave me a great idea with the cap of the girl... I didn't see the detail and how much I can tell with it...

[Kombisaurus]

Beautiful pictures and a great story to go with it Irma. Thanks.

[Irma]

Thanks so much Adrian for your comment...

I am happy you enjoyed them.