Bumble Bee
Going for Gold
While hiking a trait to a waterfall in Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota, I spotted a patch of yellow wildflowers. The flowers were humming with busy bees. As I focused in on the bees, I noticed the orange area of their abdomen. While processing this image I did a quick internet search and learned these are orange-banded bumblebees. I don’t think I’ve seen this variety (Bombus ternarius) before. If you zoom in, you can see the legs of the bee covered with pollen from the flowers. You can learn more about this variety of bee at Bees Wiki.
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Wild Bee on Wild Bergamot
The wild bergamot blooms seemed to be a favorite work site of the wild bees. This is another image gathered from our hike through the nature trail along Baird Creek in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
This was a difficult image to capture because the lighting was pretty dim and the bee wouldn’t hold still, but I do like the detail of the translucent wings.
You can view a larger, more detailed version of this photo by clicking on the image. When you do, a new browser tab will open with a full-screen view.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me ([email protected]) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Sedum Bumbler
This time of year, the pollinators are busy in my wife’s flower beds. This is a bumble bee browsing through the sedum flowers.
This is a comparatively small image because I cropped in, to enlarge the bee to a size where you can see some of the detail. I don’t own a true “macro” lens, so I make my 16-55mm lens do the heavy lifting.
The image is larger than you can see on this page, but if you click the photo a larger version will open in a new browser tab to give you more detail.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Buzz By Here – To Infinity and Beyond!
This portly bumble bee looks as though he’s heading off past the flowers, into infinity, intent on some important bee mission. No doubt, for his honey. (You’ve got to award style points for that perfect form.)
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Popular Spot
Flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing. This proved to be a popular spot in the meadow. Honey bees and bumble bees were frequenting this clump of purple spiderswort. It was early morning – maybe 6:30 (notice the dew still on the plants) – and they were already hard at it.
To get this shot, I put my camera on a tripod and simply focused on a colorful, well lit clump of flowers and waited. When a bee would enter into the scene, I would start clicking. The bees you see here are exactly how I photographed them…but they were never in the shot together. Since the focus and framing never changed, it was easy to combine the various bees from separate images into one.
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