Bees

I really, really don't like stripy things. There are three types of stripy things. Wasps: the evil of all evil. They sting you for entertainment value alone. Then there are bees. Apparently they only sting you if they are depressed and in a suicidal mood. Finally, there is the bumble bee. As a general rule I love anything that is fluffy, so even though it is striped it can nearly get away with it.
But truth be told, no matter what category of stripy thing, I generally try to avoid them at all costs. This gave me a bit of a dilemma when I was in Italy. We were staying with L and her family when her brother A said something like "you for me take photo of my bee??". My first thought was "never in your life am I going anywhere close to a hive full of stripy things", but at the same time I was slightly intrigued by the challenge. I wondered if it would be possible to capture very small, fast flying stripy things with my new camera. So I agreed and set outside with my longest lens, trying to stay as far as possible from them. As luck would have it, they were way to busy to take any notice of me. I had no idea what I was doing, I just randomly pointed my camera in their direction on "auto" setting. Most pictures were out of focus, but now and again I was lucky enough to snap them in mid flight. As you can see in the photo above (admittedly probably the best one I got) some are hauling back a load of pollen. And seeing them just fascintated me. They really are busy as bees. Flying in and out endlessly. So I found a new respect for bees. As long as they keep out my house, away from my beer and stick to their hive. I can even get quite close to them without completely freaking out. And I even have a photo to prove it......