Still catching up on some PP... sorry for the slow postings folks.
Gene Simmons has nothing on these guys.
Fun facts: "Orchid bees (Euglossini) have extraordinarily long, thin, tubular tongues (proboscis) that can be twice their body length, allowing them to reach deep nectar in tropical orchids, acting as crucial pollinators for these flowers and Brazil nut trees, and even using their tongues to collect fragrant compounds for mating. These specialized mouthparts, sometimes over 4 cm long"
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(All taken with Sony ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II ƒ/5.0 200.0 mm 1/2500 at various ISO from iso640 to iso1250)
johnohio wrote:
Beauties one and all Eric. Love that metallic green on the bees.
John
Thanks John! Me too, now that I know them better.
The first time I saw an orchid bee, all I could think of were the nasty green horse fly's on Hampton and Salisbury Beach when I was a little kid. Those nasty things would always land in the middle of your back where you couldn't swat them, and their bite would leave a huge welt. Orchid bee's on the other hand, seem like if I leave them alone, they leave me alone, and let me take some pic's. Much nicer critter in my opinion.
Hey wait, I used to vacation on Hampton and Salisbury beach when I was a kid!! Those green headed fly bit hard
Now about your lovely Orchard Bees, radiant beauties Eric, so very cool of species and those eyes are just 'eye-dropping' gorgeous You did a fine job in some harsh light my friend Wow!!
Amazing shots of such a challenging subject. I have always liked orchid bees but have never come close to getting a single photo of one, much less a whole set. Very cool.
Travis
Karl Witt wrote:
Hey wait, I used to vacation on Hampton and Salisbury beach when I was a kid!! Those green headed fly bit hard
Now about your lovely Orchard Bees, radiant beauties Eric, so very cool of species and those eyes are just 'eye-dropping' gorgeous You did a fine job in some harsh light my friend Wow!!
Karl
We prolly were in proximity to each other and in our family beach pic backgrounds in some old dusty album, heh heh.
I would have been the kid furiously attempting to catch a wave body surfing, and you would have known me by the sound of my mother yelling that my lips and ankles were blue and it was time to come out of the water for a while.
Thanks for the kind words, they are a favorite of my bee species around here.
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barefoot photographer wrote:
Amazing shots of such a challenging subject. I have always liked orchid bees but have never come close to getting a single photo of one, much less a whole set. Very cool.
Travis
Thanks Travis! I love the way they hover just a split second, then teleport to their next location so fast you can't hardly track the movement. You kinda have to anticipate them, see what bloom they are interested in and plan on them returning to it, and lean on the shutter when they do. I've done this with jumping fish, like shad and mullet before, with a little practice you can anticipate the shot and get it.
ProResRaw wrote:
Nice shots!
Have you tried using Sony 70-200mm F4 II Macro for macro shots?
It has a larger magnification.
Thanks, appreciate the comment!
No... I have decided macro and macro'ish lenses aren't for me, well, at least not for this subject matter. I may grab a true macro at some point for other work someday if I stumble on one cheap (because we all like new gear, right?), but not for this kind of shooting.
Here is why: When I did some research on the new Sony 100mm Macro, I found that the magnification falls off rapidly as you get away from the MFD (minimum focus distance) and when you add MWD (minimum working distance to the front element) into the equation that at the distances I need to shoot insects and not scare them away, that my 70-200mm f2.8 GMII or even my Sony 200-600mm at around 1/3rd life size is really no different in final image size from either the 100mm GM Macro or the 70-200 F4 macro, and I'll still have to crop the heck out of them at the distances I prefer shoot. My GMII has a brighter aperture than the F4 zoom and also focuses faster than most any of the true macro lenses. So why bother?
For the math and to see my other post on the subject, see here:
Orchid bee's on the other hand, seem like if I leave them alone, they leave me alone, and let me take some pic's. Much nicer critter in my opinion. 
You did a fine job in some harsh light my friend 
Wow!!
