Sunday, September 27, 2009

Macro Bee Pics

One of the easiest subjects for macro photography, at least among the flying insects, are bees. Where butterflies, dragonflies and other insects can be wary of people bees seem like they do not usually even notice our presence. This makes it pretty easy for you to get in close for that macro shot.
Maybe it is because they are always working hard at collecting food. They are very singular of purpose so anything that does not involve finding and collecting food they for the most part ignore. Including humans and their cameras. It is easy to see how hard the bee in the photo above is working. Notice all of the white dots on the bees head and legs? This is pollen that it has inadvertently picked up while collecting food. When it moves to another flower some of the pollen will fall off and pollinate the other plant. This is how most of the plant life on the planet reproduces.

8 comments:

Judy said...

Bees are so very busy in the flowers! It can be fun to simply watch them! I have fond memories of my elder daughter, about 4 years old, drawing the pollen baskets of a bee, after we had read about them. Of course, her version was nothing like reality! lol!!

Jama said...

The macros are so stunning!

Terri said...

Beautiful captures. I love photographing bees too.

Unknown said...

Very pretty! I have been running into some big ones lately but haven't been able to snap. Glad you did!

Anonymous said...

Great macros! It takes lots of patience to take a bee macro, because they are jumping from one flower to next...
very nice!

Anonymous said...

Bees are the most amazing creatures. What beautiful shots.

jay said...

Beautiful pictures! You know, I've never been able to get a good macro of a bee. I guess I'll keep trying!

DNLee said...

great macros. I agree. I've gotten a few bee and othr pollinator shots lately. I posted about Pollinators, not that long ago. Thanks for sharing.

http://urban-science.blogspot.com/2009/09/pollinators-make-world-go-round.html