Purple Cone Flower

Purple Cone Flower [Echinacea purpurea]

Just in case you could not place the strange thing the bee was playing with, this is one of the flowers from yesterday's bee fest. I love these flowers, it's fun to chase an interesting subject like a bee or a hummingbird, but the truly excellent photographs take more than just the perfect main subject. Everything has to come together. The bees are interesting but they need to be doing something or poking around in a crazy looking flower to really make the shot. That's why I usually don't stop when I think I have the image I was looking for. It's important to keep playing with the angles to get different backgrounds especially in macro photography where leaning to the side a few inches can completely change the shot.