If you are ever in the village of Dvory nad Žitavou in the spring, head to the levee of the Žitava river and you might find this bee: Andrena ovatula. A widespread, common apparently sandy soil loving Andrena. This specimen captured there by Peter Šima. The world is lit up with over 1500 kinds of Andrena. Each year Billions to Trillions are produced, flying about, gathering food for their nests, inadvertently pollinating all sorts of wild plants and bunches of things we like to eat. Similarly, a few billion people flit about those same areas (looking at their cell phones, of course). Yet. Both Andrenas and humans so very oblivious to the other, despite the big ol brackets they place around the other's lives. We at least should give them a medal (the bees, not the humans). Photos by Cole Cheng. 16:56, 7 May 2021 (UTC)16:56, 7 May 2021 (UTC){{{{{{0}}}}}}16:56, 7 May 2021 (UTC)16:56, 7 May 2021 (UTC) All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 We Are Made One with What We Touch and See We are resolved into the supreme air, We are made one with what we touch and see, With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair, With our young lives each spring impassioned tree Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change. - Oscar Wilde You can also follow us on Instagram - account = USGSBIML Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen: Best over all technical resource for photo stacking:
www.extreme-macro.co.uk/ Free Field Guide to Bee Genera of Maryland:
bio2.elmira.edu/fieldbio/beesofmarylandbookversion1.pdf Basic USGSBIML set up:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4 Bees of Maryland Organized by Taxa with information on each Genus
www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/collections PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:
ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:
plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:
www.photomacrography.net/ Contact information: Sam Droege sdroege@usgs.gov 301 497 5840