Photo of the day for 2/7/13

[cassidyrose]

Photo of the day: Bee Joy. I love bees and I love photographing bees. I particularly love these big, fat, furry bees, but they are more skittish and jittery than some other bees so I find getting good macro photos of them to be a challenge. I was just going through photos from June of 2011 and saw a bunch I'd shot of this bee, but they were pulled back and I didn't think they looked all that great. Then I noticed that this one looked sharp and I zoomed in and holy smokes that is awesome! I can see the pollen on its legs! This is a macro shot, done with my 50mm macro lens and what I thought was a throwaway shot may now be my most favorite bee photo I've ever taken. And, no surprises, I shot this at Ardenwood, in one of the flower gardens. Also, I don't usually favor a tight, centered crop like this, but I think it really works here.