photos of bees

If you enjoy my photos and would like to purchase some, I want to thank you! Simply visit my Zazzle online shop and browse the product offerings. If there’s a photo you would like to purchase but don’t see it in my shop, please contact me by using the Contact form at the bottom of my home page and let me know which photos you are interested in purchasing, and in what format / medium.

Today I’m participating in Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post photo challenge. This week’s theme is Ongoing.

It took me a little time to figure out what type of photos I could take to best represent this theme. At first, I thought photographing a sunrise or a sunset in progression would be perfect. Unfortunately we haven’t had the best weather recently, so this opportunity has not presented itself in time.

So I’m offering you my second pick for this ongoing theme: bees, hard at work on a variety of flowers. What I find most amazing about bees is how relentless they are at doing their job, even when you stand right next to them for a photo opportunity. Their work is ongoing and uninterrupted and I love watching them and capturing them on camera.

Remember you can click on each photo so you can see it in a larger size.

I took this photo at Balboa Park in San Diego earlier this week. These are pear blossoms from ornamental pear trees. The bees were super busy collecting nectar from the thousands of flowers available to them.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park — Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on the pear blossoms at San Diego Balboa Park

This next photo is also from Balboa Park. Apparently the bees weren’t just busy with the pear blossoms. They were also hard at work on these beautiful aloe flowers. You could see the ongoing flow of bees all over these flowers.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego — Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on aloe flowers at Balboa Park in San Diego

I took the next photo at the San Diego Botanic Garden a few weeks ago. Bees seemed to love this cactus flower. You can see more photos of these bees and cactus here.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden — Sunday Post: Ongoing – bees on cactus flowers at the San Diego Botanic Garden

This next photo is from Idyllwild, California. This bee’s ongoing nectar collection on this wild rose made for a great photo opportunity.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild — Sunday Post: Ongoing – bee on a wild rose in Idyllwild

My last photo is not of a bee but a tiger swallowtail butterfly. Just like bees, butterflies go from one flower to the next to collect nectar. This is an ongoing job and gives me an opportunity to chase them around to try to get a good shot. This one ended up on my 2013 photo calendar.

Sunday Post: Ongoing - tiger swallowtail butterfly — Sunday Post: Ongoing – tiger swallowtail butterfly

A few days ago, I shared with you some photos of flowers I took recently. Today I’d like to share a few more photos I took that day, more specifically the ones with the busy bees on the yellow cactus flowers.

Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. This is the photo I shared the other day.

I love how the sunlight reflects on the bee’s wings to show its intricate design on the photo below.

Bee collecting nectar on yellow cactus flowers

I wonder how much nectar the bees can collect from these tiny flowers, which are just the size of a bee. At least the bees were busy doing their job and I didn’t seem to disturb them with my camera.