Bumblebee in echninops

[DanK]

In our garden a few days ago. The flowers are spherical, and the bees immediately dive in, so it is hard to catch them when their heads are still entirely in view.

C&C welcome, of course.

[Bobobird]

Wow that is close and looks alien. Personally I would have preferred more of it to show.

Some blurring on the right of the bug which a tighter aperture might have fixed.

[DanK]

Wow that is close and looks alien. Personally I would have preferred more of it to show.

Some blurring on the right of the bug which a tighter aperture might have fixed.

Bobo,

Thanks. I completely agree on both counts. The problem wasn't aperture; it was wind. These echinops were blowing around enough that only one in several shots was even approximately in focus, and in many cases, the wind was blowing sideways as well, so I would get the wrong part of the bug in focus. This was all of the bug I had in the image. None of the BBs I got in this batch were really quite spot on. This was the best of the bunch.

Re their alien appearance: they are actually quite benign, as are most (non-Africanized) honeybees. I have never been bothered by either in several years of chasing them around. I've often grabbed hold of the flower one is on to try to stop it from blowing around, and the worst they have done is leave. If you threaten the nest, of course, it is another matter altogether. A local beekeeper was quoted in today's paper as saying that he is sometimes stung as often as 40 times in one job when he is moving hives. Some wasps and hornets are another matter: they will sometimes sting even before you notice you are near them--which happened to me again last week. I'm somewhat allergic to wasps, so I have to watch out for them. I found this one (below) building a nest on my deck. Since I knew it would come back, I solved that problem by setting the camera up on a tripod with a remote release and sat a few feet away waiting for it to reappear:



Dan

[Geoff F]

An excellent shot of a Mason Wasp actually engaged in nest building.

And I know how difficult bumblebees are to photography perfectly. Only a very small number of my shots become keepers.