This weekend I went to Victoria, and spent both Saturday and Sunday morning at dawn at Island View Beach. The usual cast of characters was about, so I took the opportunity to do some experimentation with background, lighting, composition and cropping. I am sure you are all getting a bit tired of Coelioxys now, but they make such great models! They are awesome for practicing macro photography with.

If there are any suggestions from other photographers regarding what else I could be doing with these photo ops, please let me know in the comments!

Here is a wider shot showing the beach behind and the rising sun. I like shooting these kinds of shots, but it is difficult to get great results with the setup I have now.

These two are shot against the beach grass, with its characteristic pale green.

The same two shot against the blue sky. and cropped to portrait. 

Here is a natural-light shot of a Coelioxys. The light has a different quality to it, and it is difficult to get a sharp shot.

Megachile perihirta against the rising sun.

Dragging the shutter to make beautiful rim light on the hair.