Weekly Photo Challenge: Early Bird

Our theme for the Weekly Photo Challenge this week is:  Early Bird.
Our instructions:  This week, get up early and explore the morning light.

I’m up early every day.  My teenagers are both out of the house by 0700 on weekday mornings. And apparently, I’ve reached the stage of middle-age where sleeping in on the weekend means 0730.  Sigh.

Earlier this week, I went out to snap a few photos of my fading cherry blossom tree, and I quickly discovered I wasn’t alone.  My tree was buzzing.  Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  There was a flashmob of bees in my tree!  True Confessions:  I don’t love bees.  When I was a kid (you know, in my twenties) I was terrified of bees.  Bees would have ended the photo session.  I’m still not a fan of the flying-stinging-insects category as a whole, but I’ve made a fragile peace with bees.

So, I took a deep breath of middle-aged bravery, and tried to get a photo of one of the bees at work.

I did it!  I stood in a tree full of bees and the only thing that happened was this picture.

Nikon D800
ISO 125 | 70mm | f/2.8 | 1/4000 sec

Salud!