Bee in Flight

Bee in Flight
Originally uploaded by dmass.

A worker Bee in flight collecting pollen from a pussy willow tree. Taken with a 100mm macro lens from about 8 inches away.

Pussy willow attracts a lot of Bees because of the abundance of pollen on the blossom. It's also a good place to shoot Bees because they spend a long time on each blossom head, so you don't find yourself chasing them around too much. A calm windless sunny day helps greatly. The wings still aren't completely frozen even at 1/2000th of a sec.

Taken with a Canon 20D, Canon 100mm macro lens.
Settings - F6.3 at 1/2000th, AI servo mode.

Larger versions of this photo and other Bee images are on www.natures-desktop.com/animals