Ice Plant Life & Macro Mystery #2

A yellow-flowered ice plant (Delosperma nubigenum) is now in bloom in the yard, so it has become a major hub for bees, butterflies, and other insects (and one photographer). Last week’s macro mystery will also be revealed below, so here’s a spoiler alert if you missed last week’s post!

Ice plant (Delosperma nubigenum). The bright colors and lack of foliage make it very photogenic, especially for macros.

Ice plant flower.

Honey bee.

Honey bee flying with its tongue out.

If you want a challenge, try photographing a bee in flight with a manual-focus lens. They’re so fast that I’d try to guess where one was going to fly after it landed, but then it would almost always fly in the opposite direction.

A bumble bee.

This was a different kind of bee – smaller than the honey bee but with larger jaws.

Honey bee.

A painted lady butterfly.

This fly resembles a bee. One of the easiest ways to differentiate between a fly and a bee is by the shape of the eyes.

This one’s my favorite. Don’t look so surprised!

Now it’s time for the Macro Mystery #1 reveal!

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Macro Mystery #1 reveal – a broken piece of glass in gravel.

Were you able to identify it correctly? If not, that’s okay – here’s a new mystery to try. The first image is a cropped version, and below it is the full macro clue.