Photo Short #36 - British Honey Bee.

Honey Bee.

I took this picture of a honey bee in a meadow near Stroud in the southwest of England. The health of bee populations has become a hot topic in recent years. Bees play a significant roll in the ecosystem by pollinating many plants. Some experts are concerned that if bees become extinct the knock-on effect could see mass extinctions of many other species.

But is this a wild honey bee? That’s a difficult question to answer, partly because it depends on your definition of the word ‘wild.’ Many would argue that all bees are wild, even those kept by beekeepers, because they all feed in the wild and play a part in the ecosystem. Others would say this bee is not wild because it’s not a native British honey bee. This bee is a European honey bee introduced to Britain by beekeepers many years ago. So, even if it belongs to a ‘wild’ hive, it can only be considered a feral bee, not a real wild bee.

The native species of honey bees in the UK are black and have thicker hair to help them cope with the colder British climate. Sadly these bees are rare and were thought to have gone extinct nearly a hundred years ago, though recently some colonies have reappeared and efforts are being made to replenish their numbers.

About The Photo.

I took this photo with a 50mm lens and a magnifying filter. Using a filter like this is a cheap way of turning an ordinary lens into a macro lens. It’s like taking a photo through a magnifying glass. Although this technique will always be technically inferior to a specialist macro lens, and introduce optical problems, such as chromatic aberration and soft focus around the edges; with a bit of effort the results can be acceptable.