White backed bee

Another cloudy day at the grove, very little action other than a few bees. I exercised Damien the decoy dragon again, wearing his bright yellow livery, but zero interest from anything out there today. Color is obviously important. I will have a look at what I have available and come up with another idea. Something closer to realism.

The blipped bee is the most common of all the insects and one that I kept back for such occasions as today, when the pickings are a bit thin. I nicknamed it the white backed bee, because of the white patch on the back of the thorax. Clearly the white patch is pollen collecting on the hairs of the bee.

On the lower bee this can be seen most clearly, also, a lot of the fur seems to have been worn away with the constant rubbing on the bloom as it forces its way in and out of the flower head hundreds of times per day. When the bee is feeding, it is buried right upto its abdomen.

I really fancied a hovering shot today. To achieve a decent speed, I went to ISO320 which gained me two stops, also a one stop under exposure setting, to combat the brightness of the bloom, without which the blooms become even more washed out. The combo is actually the same bee hanging off the same bloom. I did a horizontal flip on the lower bee and moved it down a touch.

Hoping for a brighter day tomorrow, although several inches of rain would be nice too, as my well has run dry and I am reduced to buckets of water from my fishing lure test tank. I thought the wet season had started, but it seems to have dried up again. If it doesn't start raining with a vengeance soon, the local farmers are going to have a lot of problems.

Dave