We took the day off today to allow for travel time to a Recognition Dinner event this evening. We were busy as bees this morning with office work –sad, really, it was a beautiful morning– but relaxed a little more this afternoon. I decided to attempt some photos of a foliage plant, a “volunteer” of unknown species, that has been thriving at our back door. Those photos had mixed success. As I was about to pick up my tripod and head back indoors, I turned and noticed a couple of very large bees giving our bright yellow marigolds a going over. What the heck… I’ve got the camera with me, complete with macro lens, and bright light to work with; let’s shoot some bees!

A bee works to extract nectar and pollen from a marigold bloom.

I was pretty happy with the shots in general. The afternoon sunlight allowed for shutter speeds well over 1/1,000 second and that really helped when shooting handheld — bees and flowers move and focus shifts fast! Looking at the images on the computer screen I noticed details I hadn’t noticed before, especially in the bees’ wings. So I enlarged and cropped that area on one shot. I’m delighted. I could make that bee photo two feet wide and it would still look good.

Cropped image showing details in bee's wing.

I packed it in and said good afternoon to my buzzy little friends. Soon it will be time to get dressed and head out. I’m hoping for a nice evening. I’m also hoping my voice will hold out: I’ve had another bout of laryngitis and, though better today, my voice is still strained.

The End

Bee good!