Bees And Their Vibrant Lives

Bees and their wild and vibrant lives:
a gardener’s exploration and perspective.

Bees live such rich and energetic lives. This summer, I could not get enough of them. They are the compassionate, adorable, master pollinators of all the flora worlds. I think many a gardener would say ‘they are the life of the garden party’. Ok, maybe that is just me that says that.

And, I say bees are compassionate because they rarely sting. They work and work and work and seem to get along well with all visitors in the garden. Unlike wasps that fight, guard and attack, (more on that in another story), bees are splendid at mingling with their garden friends and excel at bee-ing. 

Bee Acrobatics, Bee-eauty and Bee-shenaniganies** are joy to photograph.

**Yes, I have my own dictionary in the making and shenanigans are a thing.

Shenaniganies – Noun, singular and plural,

Definition:
– the cousins of shenanigans
– use this word if the occurrings, happennings, events taking place are not quite ‘shenanigans’ worthy

– smaller, cuter, funner instances of shenanigans

Bee-acrobatics of bees are funny and entertaining. Their shenaniganies are a joy to observe.
I dare you to disagree. 

But first: Ode to Master Photographers & Macro Specialists

Yes, there are some spectacular bee photos out there. I applaud the master photographers that have captured the bee’s fine details, their beautiful complexity and shared the bees’ intimate lives with us. Thank you for that. Thank you for your masterful dedication. Check out Jose Madrigal to learn great tips on photographing bees, for example, to pursue this specialized track of macro photography.

I am simply a gardener with a camera.

This summer, as a seasoned gardener, and photographer returning back into the creative arena full-time, I chose to challenge myself with documenting bees and their lives. My focus was (and is, until the of the 2026 pollinator season) to finesse my process and speed up my prep in the field.  My intention was to discover something new, spend time outdoors and enjoy watching these masterful pollinators. 

Bees and all their pollinator friends will always be guests of honour in my gardens. I hope you welcome them too.

Where to photograph bees?

Deliberately, I explored a variety of environmental conditions: backyards, roadsides, fields, forests and abandoned spaces. The master photographers will undoubtedly and wisely tell you that there are best times of day, best times of the season and best places to photograph bees at their finest. They are correct. Did I heed their advice? Hmmmm, not really.

I wanted to explore limitations. My limitations. Constraints of time, places and tools.
The way to learn is to start where you are. And, keep going.

That’s what I did. It was a rewarding, enriching, and at times, tedious exercise of:
Daily photographing
Adjusting ISO on the ‘fly’
Testing out shutter speeds
Working freehand (no I don’t use a tripod, nor a flash, I like to be nimble and sacrifice stability for flexibility)
Patiently waiting for wind to ‘blow over’
Scouting the skies estimating when the clouds will pass

Photography Basics 

I used only the kit lens, 24-70mm, I have on my Nikon D800*. Some days I took hundreds of photos with a maybe a handful making the cut. There is a deep satisfaction in ‘pruning’ down shots from 100s or even 1000s to 5 or so.  Don’t you think? 

The way to successfully cut back photos is to step back in between pruning passes.
Take a day or two. Sleep on it. Then, go back, look again and cut, cut, cut. (Yes, I am using garden lingo)

Bees are fantastic subjects in photography: challenging AND rewarding. 

They are most entertaining at their bee-est selves, in the midst of their foraging, collecting, harvesting and eating. Bees are the life of the party, in the garden, in the meadow. 

They are the guest you most want to see and get to know. As they make their way through an array of flowers, they say ‘hello’ to some, deeply explore others and ‘catch up’ with their ‘old’ favourites. 
At times, they can be funny and even clumsy.

Bee-Adorable

Bees have an adorable way of wrapping themselves around a small flower as they soak up the nectar, tuck into a deep flower disappearing all-together or rest in perfect harmony cradled in some flowers’s stamens and pistils. Great place to learn/review flower details here.

My fascination of their harmonious blending. Architecture of bee-ing. He he. 

The more I observed them in various environments, the more I became fascinated how their body, head and legs, visually intertwined with the architecture of the flower. Their legs blended gracefully and intimately with hostas, thistles, cosmos or cone flowers. Once they landed, they looked like they belonged. I loved spending time just watching them.  Check out the anatomy of the bee here – University of Guelph

Bee-in-g: the architecture of bee-ing (Testing out a new word. Do you like it?)

author: me

Last words (of summer)

Bees are the perfect guest in a flower garden. 
Bee-Acrobatic. Bee-beautiful. Dive right in. 

*If there is more story below, I delved into a couple of other lenses as the season winds down and the bees slow down.