boy you hit the mark on this pic...

SUBLIME... color... texture.. depth of field.. and focus..

congrats.

ken

Yes, that is a great photo.

I find bumblebees so amusing. I'm allergic to wasp stings, but these critters don't freak me out in the slightest. I could spend hours watching them do their thing. They get so obsessed with a particular bloom and just go about their business with such gusto and determination. It's as if the rest of the world ceases to exist for them.

Kevin

Believe it or not I took it with my phone. There is a special camera app that has a focus option. This simple tool really lets me step up my game with my phone pictures. It's called Camera Plus if you are interested.

I also love to watch the bees. Any kind of bee. Although I have a visceral reaction to hornets. I run without control of my faculties.

Bees work so hard. I find it inspiring when I'm working outside. They will outwork me every time.

Great photo! I, too, love to watch the bumblebees on my flowers. They especially like the Chelone/Turtlehead & Actea/Cimicifuga racemosa/snakeroot blooms and are fun to watch as they work the blooms. A close neighbor is a beekeeper so I'm especially attuned to providing honeybees with natural sources of nectar/pollen.

BlueBirdPeony - I've been afraid of bees my whole life but in recent years gardening for them diminished/mitigated my fear after watching how hard they work. I still give them plenty of room to maneuver but no longer duck when I inadvertently get close to one.

Here's one I caught on camera two summers ago on winter sown Chelone/Turtlehead:

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Now you've done it. Watching and taking pictures of bees is my favorite thing to do. It is why I grow flowers.

Great photo! I also love watching bees. I've got hollyhocks growing and even though the plants were chewed up by Japanese beetles and the remaining leaves look awful due to rust, it's worth the aggravation to see bees literally rolling around the flowers, coated with pollen.

This picture isn't a bee but a bee orchid. Taken last Saturday in South Wales. We were scattering Dad in his old home area and I saw the first bee orchid I have spotted since I was a five year old kid. The superstitious might read something into that. For me it just made the day even more special.

I've never heard of a bee orchid before, but that's amazing.

Ophrys apifera, they truly are gorgeous. Here's the whole spike.

Flora, that is one of the most beautiful and interesting things I have ever seen. Absolutely incredible. Never heard of them before. What a treasure.

Loving everyone else's pics too!

This post was edited by BlueBirdPeony on Tue, Jul 23, 13 at 22:04

Great close-ups all of you.

Here is one I took a couple of days ago. This unnamed insect (dragon fly of some sort?) on a "Havana Blues" geranium flower.

Rouge, a great picture!

Fabulous dragon fly!

Rouge, LOVE.