Here’s a list of references and resources that had helped me a lot. I’ll split this into two areas:
- Photography related
- Bees related
Photography Related
Books
- John Shaw’s Closeups in Nature: The Photographer’s Guide to Techniques and Equipment by John Shaw. This is a an old book made during the film photography days. However the foundational contents are still applicable today and author John Shaw is a great teacher. You can read the book here.
- John Shaw’s Guide to Digital Nature Photography by John Shaw. This is a more general book on nature photography. There’s a section on macro photography as well.
Online Sites & Portal
- Photomacrography – online forum for enthusiasts. There’s a wealth of knowledge shared in forum. I prefer reading to watching youtube videos.
- Extreme Macro – this is a great site to grasp the key concepts in macro and ‘extreme’ macro photography
Bees Related
Books
- Bees & other beneficial insects: a pocket-book guide by Megan Halcroft. This tiny booklet is very handy and useful to help identify solitary & native bees.
- NSW DPI AgGuide for Australian Native Bees – I bought the e-book because there’s interactive contents (i.e. video, sound etc). I think this book is suitable for beginners like me.
- The Australian bee genera: An annotated, user friendly key by Tobias Smith
- A Guide to Native Bees of Australia by Terry Houston. Note: this is a great resource particularly but perhaps a bit ‘too technical’ for someone like me.
Online Sites / Portal
- Bee Aware of Your Native Bees (Australia) Facebook Group administered by Megan Halcroft (Dr). If you use facebook, this is a useful group to get some help with identifying bees from the experts and the enjoy bee photos submitted by group members 🙂
Workshop
- Native Bees Workshop at UQ taught by Tobias Smith. Keep an eye for the upcoming session if you are in the Brisbane area. I attended the workshop in 2021 and it was really amazing! The best part was being able to see all sorts of Australian native bees under the microscope 🙂 Highly recommended!