If you want to take photos of honey bees in flight, do so early in the morning. They don't move as fast and the lighting is to die for.

This morning we stepped out in our yard, steaming coffee in hand, and watched the honey bees foraging among the lavender blossoms. Against the backdrop of red pomegranate blossoms and spring green leaves, they crawled up and down the lavender and then took off for the next blossom.

So smoothly. So effortlessly. So tirelessly.

You don't always have to stop the action with a flash. We took this with a Nikon D700 with a 105mm macro lens. No flash.  We set the aperture (f-stop) at 8, the shutter speed at 1/800th of a second, and the ISO at 800.

The blurring of the wings added to the feeling of speed.

Indeed, the honey bees seem a little more frantic now as they rush to bring back nectar, pollen, propolis and water to the hive.  With the queen bee laying about 2000 eggs a day now, everyone has to pitch in.

Just call this "The Lavender Blossom Special."