I've looked around and I can't seem to find a photograph of a European Honey Bee and a Green Sweat Bee together anywhere. So as a bonus, they're on a gorgeous flower, and were kind enough to fleetingly position themselves in this pleasing arrangement :)
The title is a reference to Emily Dickinson's "The Bee"
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.
His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!
---
I anticipate that there will be some criticism of the leg that is blurred due to movement... Really a shame, but these buggers move quick! :)
I think this should perform well, perhaps as high as 6.25-6.5.. Then again, I've never entered a bug shot, so I might be pretty far off on the score here..
I know I'll probably get knocked a bit by some voters for the flower/bug thing, but I hope the unusual nature of the shot might please at least some of the people who usually hate this sort of shot..
[Jul. 6th, 2010 12:46:23 AM]
I just wanted to add a bit of environment here, I was doing a walk-around with my new 100mm macro lens, just shooting random stuff, largely flowers, thorns, grass, and such.
I then noticed that my neighbor (wonderful lady, 85 this year..) has a cone flower that is just buzzing with bees.
Well, I set up and started trying to get a nice picture of a bee on a cone flower, well, as I started to do pretty well, I noticed a bright green flash, and pulling my eye out from the view finder, I located the source: A bright green metallic bee!
Well, naturally, this was an opportunity not to be missed! Unfortunately there seems to be an inverse proportional relationship between size and speed, essentially the green metallic bee was FAST, going to four flowers in the time the european honey bees completed a single flower..
So, while chasing this little guy trying to get a picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see him land on an already occupied cone flower! Working quickly, I managed to get three shots, of which this was clearly the best.. All three were sharp enough, but I liked the balance this photo seems to have.
I knew I had a great shot right away, and I did my post processing work on this, intending to submit it to the Macro Side Challenge, but just as I was about to upload it, the idea struck me that this was probably good enough for a free study entry..
Now, part way through voting, I am pleased with the image, and have been amazed at the swings it has experienced.. Although, I've been warned about entering bug macro shots :)..
After entering the shot into the free study, I was trying to find a title, and started by trying to determine what kind of bee this was.. I had the notion of naming the image "The REAL alien bee", and I probably should have, as it would have likely resonated much better than my eventual choice... Oh and as to what kind of bee it was, as you see above, it's a green sweat bee, so named because of their attraction to the salt in sweat..
What I really found amazing after searching around for information, I realized that I couldn't find a similar photo anywhere, and most photos of green sweat bees are really, really blurry (fast little buggers..)... So, as a result, I'm even happier with this image, as it seems to be somewhat unique.
Thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed a bit of the "back story" on this image..
Cheers!
Statistics
Place: 56 out of 341 Avg (all users): 6.2320 Avg (commenters): 7.8000 Avg (participants): 6.1505 Avg (non-participants): 6.4688 Views since voting: 1095 Views during voting: 223 Votes: 125 Comments: 12 Favorites: 0
Hey Cory! I gave this a big grin when I saw the green bee! I admire you for hunting the shot--all my bugs are accidental. I loved your notes, too, it adds a lot to my enjoyment of the shot. I can just picture your neighbor. Congratulations on such a nice score for a Two Bug Shot!
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