Within minutes of seeing the elegant honey bee that I featured in a recent posting, I encountered this Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica), which is built more like a sumo wrestler than a dancer, especially when viewed face-to-face, as in the second image below.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
that is an amazing capture, what a fine fellow it is
Thanks. Now that spring is in full swing for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, I am becoming friends again with my 180mm macro lens and reminding myself why I like it so much. It lets me get close-ups like this from a standoff distance, so hopefully insects will hang around long enough for me to take their photo.
It’s hard to photograph a bee face–they always seem to tuck it down or into a flower. That second shot is a winner!
Amazing photos, I love the detail.
Thanks, Charlie. One of the biggest challenges for me when shooting macro is to capture the detail in focus. It’s almost inevitable that parts of the subject will be out of focus. In the first photo, for example, I really like the way that the wings look.
Those are beautiful close-ups. I probably would have mistaken this one for a bumblebee.
Thanks. I think the biggest difference is that the upper surface of the abdomen is bare and shiny for the carpenter bee and is fuzzy for the bumble bee.
Looks pretty ferocious in the second shot – great composition too.
Thanks, Lyle. I know that macro is not really your style, so I’m always interested to see how you will react.