I think it's a Carpenter Bee Queen?

[binx88]

 

[wobe]

Really beautiful shot - especially with that head on perspective!

According to my Google image search research this is actually a (rare) Male Carpenter bee.

 

[MitchP]

Beautiful shot, especially in flight!

 

[Jeff15]

A very good shot...

 

[binx88]

Thank you all for the compliments. It's my considered opinion that for me every keeper I end up with is a lucky shot because I'm just not good enough where I can save more than a couple out of ten. But I'm working on it and having fun doing it.

 

[binx88]

Really beautiful shot - especially with that head on perspective!

According to my Google image search research this is actually a (rare) Male Carpenter bee.

Thanks for the clarification wober. I captured that image on an early morning walk just after dawn. It was fortunate that I had a flash mounted at the time and that bee was buzzing back and forth around a bush. Took some tries to get the lucky one I was hoping for.

 

[jeffashman]

Wonderfully caught image! It's a Valley Carpenter Bee. Oh. My. Gosh. That's so gnarly! (If you listen carefully, you can hear it valley speak)

 

[binx88]

Wonderfully caught image! It's a Valley Carpenter Bee. Oh. My. Gosh. That's so gnarly! (If you listen carefully, you can hear it valley speak)

Thanks for the compliment. Quite literally in the still morning air, it was very loud yet soothing and melodic in a way I can't explain. My only concern at the time was the possibility of it getting offended by my intrusion and would let me know that in a rather unpleasant kind of way.

 

[binx88]

Beautiful shot, especially in flight!

Thank you. BTW, I adore that Ansel Adams quote in your post..

 

[MitchP]

Thank you all for the compliments. It's my considered opinion that for me every keeper I end up with is a lucky shot because I'm just not good enough where I can save more than a couple out of ten. But I'm working on it and having fun doing it.

A couple out of 10? That's a lot better than my average. I'll sometimes only get a couple out of 100!

 

[binx88]

A couple out of 10? That's a lot better than my average. I'll sometimes only get a couple out of 100!

Oh not to worry, I recall the time I was happily shooting away at flying dragonflies up until the moment I started reviewing the files and noticed I was way too optimistic about the whole shoot because of one setting that I overlooked that ruined every shot I took that day. Chimping the shots in-between didn't reveal the flaws because of the relatively small size of the on-board screen. As a result the whole shoot was too blurry to recover. And for me that's not an isolated incident either. I have a history of not prepping properly for upcoming shoots resulting in disappointments. Lessons learned though.

 

[jeffashman]

I hate when that happens. Everything looks great on that little screen, then you get home and load the images up in LR, and ugh! All just out of focus.