Honey bee

After work today I spent about fifteen minutes taking photos of some of the many bees that were feeding on my geraniums. I spotted at least six different types, and here are three of them: this, I think, is a honey bee, the first extra is an early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) coming in to land, and the second extra is quite a decent shot of a bee I've absolutely failed to identify - so if anyone knows what it is, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

I then sat down to judge the entries for this week's Mono Monday challenge, which was far harder than capturing photos of bees! There were 135 submissions this week - which was very gratifying, but didn't make my task any easier. I looked at everything several times before managing to make a long-list of about 30 images, and then I just had to whittle it down shot by shot until I reached a final selection. Many thanks to everyone who took part.

My hearts this week go (in no particular order) to:

richardg for Angles - if this had simply been a shot of the pitches of the roofs it would have been interesting, but his use of those angles to frame the lone tree takes it to another level.

greg_lovett for Singing in the Wires - no extra points for the song or the singer (though I love both), just kudos for the strong, clean image.

petespics for what I take to be a jetty, though I've never seen one at that rakish an angle before - but what do I know, we're landlocked here. Great angles anyway, and I like the human element in it too.

AT for Almost Perfect - if there was an award for the greatest number of angles within a shot this would definitely have won, but as it is it got its ♥ for composition and crisp detail.

BoHingles for his street scene - I love the composition and HDR processing of this as well as the angles, and the human interest is very nicely framed.

I think  I gave out my hearts as I was going along there - but if any of those five people didn't get one, please do cough politely and tug my sleeve!

Right - you knew I couldn't stop at just five selections, and you were right: here are some Honourable Mentions:

GoranZebuhr for Ellen - putting a pretty child in the angle of your striped mattresses is never going to go amiss!
davidc for Tyne Bridge - great angles here, and again the processing serves the subject well.
MarieM4754 for Baggy Point - I like the tension between the hard and soft elements here, as well as the angles.
pipersmom for Piper angling her head and ears at the top of some angled steps.
rainie for flax leaves - I like the simple strength of this so much that I decided to overlook the fact that she threw it together on a day when she had no time or motivation for photography. Really, what hope is there for the rest of us?!!
ChrisGroucutt for Compass and Square, representing a number of entries that featured  geometry instruments, but getting the nod here for being an interesting dof doodle. 

And finally - no really, absolutely finally - I must mention Xtoffdav for humorous lateral thinking; notowennewitt for historical lateral thinking; and chantler63 for impressive Photoshopping.

If you have the time, please do follow my tag to get to all this week's entries - even if you disagree with my choices I'm pretty certain you'll have fun looking through, and will find some images that really please you.

Next week's theme will be Antidisestablishmentarianism.

Just kidding. Next week's theme will be Soft, and the tag will be mm73.