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Over the weekend I regaled you with the story of my camera’s shutter. Today is the payoff. Using the mechanical shutter set at 1/2,000th of a second, and with the lens set to the point where it gets maximum magnification (about 150mm for my camera), I set out to take pictures of our local honeybees. Here’s one swooping in to steal a likely looking flower from one of its friends. Its wings are not completely stopped, but pretty close!

Next up I’ll try to get a picture of our local bumblebee.¹ They’re bigger, they tend to hover more, and their wings beat a little bit slower. This makes for a potentially more impressive photo. However, for those of you who aren’t big fans of our chitinous cousins, I promise nothing but non-insect pictures for the rest of this week.

¹The singular is deliberate. We seem to have exactly one.

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