Bee colony

Working on a story about how honey bees are being affected by "Colony Collapse Disorder", we drove to Newberry Township to photograph beekeeper Mike Thomas and his bee hives.

Honey bees are cool. They don't mind their photos being taken, they're entirely too busy tending their work to worry about distractions. If you let them do their job, they'll let you do yours. Unless you catch one in your clothing or sit or step on one, you probably won't be bothered. Being stung is not a major problem-- it's kind of like a pinch that hangs on for a while. Thomas says he's been stung about 500 times this year.

This was taken with a 105mm macro lens, 1/500 at f11. Pushed the f-stop higher to gain depth of field. Even with it at f11, notice the bee's antenna is out of focus, but its eyes were sharp.