Clarkia Bee?

Please view larger. Thanks, Ian.

Beautiful macro work here and of very impressive DOF and colors

 

All of the best

 

Excellent macro work.

Birte, Rashed, thank you both very much.

I don't normally like bug shots... lol... but... this is stunning. I love the details... and the colour is fantastic!

I love the Dof on this one and the use of the milkweed blossoms to generate the background colour. Nice lines created by the antennae and the spine of the wing. I'm fascinated by the elliptical shape of the eye, I am allergic to bees and wasps so seldom look at them this up close. Very good macro work Ian. BTW thanks for leaving such a generous comment on my pow.

Angela, Gordon, thanks.

 

Gordon, you would have had fright just watching me take these then! I have this patch of Swamp Milkweed in my backyard bog (peat and sand in a pond liner -- I grew pitcher plants for quite a while until the pollution and excess growth of the milkweed and my favoured button bush started to shade them out) and it get hundreds (I'm not exaggerating) of bees and wasps swarm around it for the week or so it is in bloom.

 

I get mason bees and these cute guys (they are less than/around 1cm long) as well as steel-blue and regular cricket hunters, golden digger wasps, tons of bumble bees, yellow wasps, and ultra small yellow-faced bees. I just go and stand about a foot away and let them get used to me being there and then hope to get everything in focus and well composed before they move on. They move so fast I had no idea what species I was really photographing and certainly didn't know that I'd get such neat eye-patterns.

 

I had bought a macro lens to use this year too, but, it arrived broken (quickly replaced by BH -- no questions asked) and I had to use my 70-300 zoom with a close-up lens. I'm fairly happy with the results though. It is an interesting conundrum: If you photograph in the morning cool the insects are slower and easier to photograph but you have to either open up or deal with motion blur from slow shutter speeds. I should try a flash since I have a stand and could bring it to my back yard -- maybe next year.

 

As for my comment on your POW, it may have seemed generous, but it was certainly true. I'm sure there are many photographers who will try a new idea or a creative approach now and then. But, there aren't too many, at least on here, who both keep with it to fully explore the potential and then share the results so freely.

 

 

Great balance and colours -sharpness held well on eyes .very nice!

Regards Ferg