Name: Joris Vegter
Picture title: Bee Together
Nationality: Dutch
Occupation: PE teacher

Joris:
‘In 2020 I found a bee sleeping in a flower. I hadn’t seen this kind of behaviour before, so I took a lot of pictures of it. The summer was almost over by then and I didn’t find another sleeping bee that year. In 2021, however, I set myself the goal of finding more bees sleeping in flowers. It took a lot of searching, but I eventually struck gold when I came across these lovely Gold-tailed Melitta bees. The pair were sleeping in such a lovely embrace that it made my heart melt. Many species of wild bee are endangered, so the more we understand and love them the better their chances of survival.’

Technical information:
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk II
Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro
ISO 400
f/8
1/50sec
Accessories: Godox TT350O flash with AK diffuser
Post processing: Stacked in Zerene Stacker, adjustments and cropping in Lightroom

Instagram: jornature86
Flickr: Joris Vegter