Sunflower Bees

I was sorry the Assignment this month wasn't the letter B. Oh well. During the summer I grew some sunflowers in order to have some nice photos in the autumn. So that's now. These plants all died last week because of the snow storm. But I still got lots of macro photos (well, shot with a macro 100mm lens.) Enjoy:

1.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ed13b700_b.jpg


2.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6219168f_b.jpg

3.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3ea941e8_b.jpg

4.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2d76fe5a_b.jpg

5.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...067e637f_b.jpg

really like the variety in this set - well done. shots 1 and 4 are my faves here!

Cool set. I'm with Marko .. shots 1 and 4 are my faves

Excellent. I love bee macros. 1 and 4 are, I agree, the best but 2 was so close. I wonder how it could have been better because it feels like it has such potential.

Thanks for the comments. With #2, I struggled with the composition. I like the whole flower/bee part, but there is something compelling and distracting at the same time about the leaf and the back side of the flower. I was trying for a rule of thirds composition. The next photo in the sequence is much closer to the bee:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fd99f1e2_b.jpg

And the next one closer yet:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...460185e0_b.jpg

Perhaps this one is better:

Attachment 21908

I dig this second set as well - last shot wins that set for me.

I'm torn. Maybe it's the voyeur in me but I like the heavily blurred foreground as it makes me feel like I'm sneaking a peek into his world. I really like #2 in the second set as it gets rid of the leaf and stem which, you are right, I find a bit distracting.