White Tailed Bumblebee

I went to Leicester University’s Botanical Gardens to do a bumblebee identification course this weekend, and decided to get there a little early in order to take some photos.  Needless to say, I took a lot of photos – after all there were a lot of bees and a lot of flowers, and a lot of them were deleted, but this is one I kept.

From a compositional point of view I think it sticks to the rules, the bee is on a third, as is the lavender.  I also like the feel of the shot – I can almost smell the lavender and hear the bees buzzing around.

This is a male bee (you can tell this by his yellow face) and is a bright yellow and black bee – they really stand out if you see them.

The shot was taken hand held – I had upped the ISO to 400, and put it on shutter priority, 1/125secs, at f/8.0 (needless to say my macro lens was put to use).