The Story Behind... Let's Have a Drink

Let's Have a Drink - (c) Gilles Royer 2014 - 90mm - f/5 - 1/60 - ISO 200

This photo was taken in my new house, which has a water feature in the front garden, being an urn with water coming up. we had a very hot summer here in Melbourne, Victoria, with a whole week where temperatures reached the 40 degrees. I noticed , at the end of the afternoon on those days, that several bees gathered on the edge of the urn, and went for a drink, just the way they would go and collect pollen from a flower. 

I found this quite interesting, and decided to take a shot of those, armed with my macro lens (the Tamron 90mm). I took quite a lot of shots, varying the angle and trying to get a sharp image, whilst opting for a wide aperture.

I selected this shot for several reasons. First, this was one of the only one where the bee's tongue (or proboscis) was really clear and sharp, and so were the eyes. Second, I quite liked the angle of the image, and the texture provided by the water overflowing from the urn (made of cast iron). The background was blurred enough with an aperture of f/5.

As always, you can find this photo on my 500px portfolio -> http://500px.com/photo/59718228

I hope to see more of these bees around, or other kinds of insects, or even birds. Actually, next to the water feature are a couple of trees, with quite a big spider web in between. The spider has been growing over the last few weeks, so that might be the next photo idea! 

Cheers
Gilles