Honey bees favor assorted plants, including lavenders, mints, salvias, asters, borage, wild roses, echiums, clover, fireweed, goldenrod and phacelia, but have you ever seen them on a Japanese maple?

Our Japanese maple is flowering in our backyard, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the honey bees. The colorful tree,  (Acer palmatum), coveted for its colorful red leaves, stretches over our fish pond, providing a little shade for the goldfish. 

I took this photo in the late afternoon with a Nikon D800 camera and a 200mm macro lens.  The 36-megapixel camera swallows up a lot of real estate, and the 200mm lens is perfect for skittish insects.

The honey bees weren't skittish but the long lens did prove handy. It enabled me to photograph the bees without falling into the pond.