This female Sweat Bee is using her mandibles to strip pollen out of a Sourgrass anther and then with her legs she pushes the pollen down to her abdomen.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (almost 3x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC, second curtain sync). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Sharpen AI, Denoise AI, and Clarity in that order. I was holding on to the flower's stem with my left hand, and then resting the lens on that same hand to help keep the scene steady. Easier to do on days when it's windy since the vibrations that I create when I grab onto the flower are masked by the breeze.
Sweat Bee Foraging in a Sourgrass Flower by John Kimbler, on Flickr
Sweat Bee Foraging in a Sourgrass Flower
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