Solitary bees due to their personality and their eyes.
It was sunny and warm enough this morning for the critters to get active, but it got cloudy and the temperature dropped so I went looking for something to photograph. I found a male European Blue Mason Bee semi-active on a Dandelion and decided to go for a high magnification portrait.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (4x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI and Clarity in that order. I positioned the subject close to a marble step so I could use it as a reflector for the flash to keep the background from being black.
View attachment 15531Blue Mason Bee by
John Kimbler, on Flickr