July 2021 - In the lavender fields - again!

And the bees – why do we have this fascination with bees (and dislike wasps)? Both of them provide a very useful service to our lives – the bees by pollinating, and the wasps by predating those nasty plant chewing aphids. But both types of insect are all over the lavender at this time of year – and I really like trying to photograph them. The problem is that they are always in motion and, just as I get my camera focused on a bee’s whereabouts, it moves on to another flower. Extremely irritating! So, I take quite a lot of photos which consist of a blur of yellow and black – and usually the blur is on the edge of the photo. But sometimes I strike lucky – and this photo is one of those. This bee was hovering next to a lavender flower, with its proboscis embedded deep in one of the small flowers on the stem. It may have been a particularly satisfying nectar lake, which gave me the time I needed. 

You can see the nectar sac hanging on one of its back legs, and the wings, beating madly to keep the bee stable in front of the flower while it had its drink. I like the picture – although it isn’t good enough for competitions – because the bee is very visibly doing something. Photos of insects (or birds, or animals) are always more effective if they show the beast in action: a formal portrait of a bee (for example) may seem to be very nice, but in competitions we have seen so many of those pictures that is necessary to up your game and show activity.