My butterfly bush is down to its last few blooms, so I thought I'd get at least one more shot in while it's still able to attract pollinators. I was hoping for butterflies, but the only insect in sight this afternoon was this lone honey bee. He did make the rounds and hit most of the blossoms, but this shot is the only one with sufficient clarity of him hovering above the blossoms. Besides, I really liked the mint-colored background in this shot. Late afternoon is great for the lighting in my yard and on this bush, but unfortunately, late afternoon is also when the blossoms are devoid of insects. I was lucky to find this lone bee. While the shot is not as crisp as I'd like - and the lens I was using was good for stationary butterflies but not what I'd have chosen to chase honeybees - it's the overall composition that I liked the best. Given more time and more options, I'd opt for a longer DOF and a faster shutter, but neither the time nor the lighting gave me the luxury.
Post processing was minimal. I applied a simple pop filter in Topaz Adjust, and then made a slight levels adjustment in PSE. I also heavily cropped to turn a horizontal shot into the vertical you see here. No sharpening was done since it had too detrimental an impact on the soft background.
