I love random walks through parks, camera in tow, looking for anything that catches my eye. I don’t go with any specific goal other than enjoying nature, but I’m completely open to anything that catches my eye. Sometimes that may be a nesting osprey with its young, a raccoon bedding down for a nap, a group of young red fox playing, or a bumble bee gathering pollen from a patch of milkweed.

We walked a trail along the edge of the bay, with water to the left and swampy land to the right. Occasionally we’d see and follow a monarch or zebra swallowtail butterfly, which eventually led us to a small patch of milkweed. There I found bumble bees gathering pollen from the flowers.

Bumble bees are great subjects. They just don’t care about the presence of people. Some insects will fly off when you get too close. This is often the case for me with butterflies. But bumble bees just go about their business completely ignoring my presence.

I used my macro lens and I slowly moved in close to the milkweed and the bumble bee, trying to follow it the best I could. Often it’s best to pick a spot the bee seems to like, prefocus, and just wait for the bee to enter that spot. But sometimes I’ll also try following the bee. It’s not always successful, but it’s fun. On this day I was very pleased to capture the photos I did, my favorite of which shows the bumble bee in flight as it was approaching the flower, buzzing for milkweed.

Both of these photographs are available for purchase through my online store, run by Fine Art America / Pixels.

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