Pollination by kannafoot

Pollination

I was running extremely short on time at lunch today, but fortunately one of my neighbors has this bush in full bloom right on the edge of his property. Even better, there were a few Bumble Bees poking into the flowers. The only issue with getting a macro shot of the Bumble Bee is convincing him to sit still for a moment. They're very passive, so they tolerate getting very close with the lens, and it doesn't at all distract them from their primary mission. I took a bunch of shots, but I rather liked this one since the wings are moving just enough to convey motion. He was still on approach, and I liked that overall look.

I kept the processing very simple so as not to change the bright colors of the blossoms. To the background layer I added a Topaz Adjust "detail medium" filter in soft light blend mode with a high pass filter at 4 pixels. That was to fine tune the sharpening on the edges. The only other adjustment was to the levels, primarily to deepen the background a bit further. Other than that, the photo is as shot.
Lovely lighting and composition!
April 17th, 2012  
Lovely capture! : ]
April 17th, 2012  
Great composition and I like the movement of the bee, lovely colour :)
April 17th, 2012  
Beautiful. I love the lighting on this.
April 17th, 2012  
Nice capture. I like the sense of movement from the wings.
April 18th, 2012  
@calm @annbo @dianneh @mariboo @janets

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the comments. This was definitely not a planned shot, but under time constraints you take what opportunity provides!
April 18th, 2012  
Love it!!!
April 19th, 2012  
@meg365 Thanks, Megan! And thanks for the follow. :)
April 19th, 2012  
ahh the beauty of light and flight
April 20th, 2012  
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