With all of the hot weather we have been having recently, I have absolutely no desire to be as busy as a bee. I spotted this bee busily at work this past Tuesday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Temperatures in our area are forecast to rise to 100 degrees (38 degrees C) today and the high humidity will make it feel even more intolerable. I will probably spend most of the days indoors, but fortunately I have plenty of recent photos in reserve that I can process and post.
This image is the kind of simple shot that I really like. I remember my sense of wonder the first time I used a macro lens and I still feel excitement when I immerse myself in the details that a macro lens reveals.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
I still haven’t gotten over the magic of the macro lens. It’s like pulling back a curtain on an entirely different world. The details are wonderful, of course, but finding the various insects that inhabit all those flowers is a great deal of fun, too.
What is so amazing for me about photographing flowers is discovering bugs when processing the photos that I never saw when I took the shots. One of my friends calls them “bonus bugs.” 🙂
Isn’t that just the truth!
Bonus Bugs ! I like that. Great shots of a Bee BTW
Linda beat me to what I was going to say. Another way to look at it is that macro invites us into a form of space travel.
Space travel–I like the apt analogy.
Great image, Mike. Stay cool (try to).
I am dogsitting with a 90 pound German Shepherd, so I have to go out some, but try to get in our longer walks early and late with short ones in the middle.
I understand. My guess is he’s not all that interested in walking too far.
Benjamin and I are having what he calls a “Gem Sleepover” tonight. We have been busy as bees visiting some of our favorite blogs and just flew in from Ms. Liz’s dragonfly post to discover this little treasure. Benjamin was fascinated with the enlarged photo that clearly displays all those tiny details that he so loves. One of the things that he said : “This bee is hanging onto the flower trying to get lots of pollen to take back home to her hive.” We too are in the midst of a weekend heatwave, temperature is 96 degrees with a feel like of 101…Yikes! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Thanks again for sharing Benjamin’s reactions. Bees are fascinating creatures and Benjamin clearly understands their process of gathering pollen. Stay cool–the heat wave is continuing unabated.