Third Place - Heather McFarland

Title: The Pollinator

Location: Gaylord, Michigan, USA

Date taken: June 13, 2004

Equipment used: Nikon D1X, 60mm Micro Nikkor, 1/1500 sec at F5.6, ISO 320, auto-focus continuous mode.

Comments: After about 6 hours over two days chasing bees in my garden I was able to capture this bee with it's proboscis extended ready to dive into this Lupine. Capturing one in flight was harder than I thought it would be. It was tough to anticipate where the bee would fly when they left the flower. And to get a sharp image of the bee, with a nice smooth background meant I only had so many vantage points in the garden to work from.