Laurie says:

I know I said that my next photo blog would be my photos from Estonia, but then I saw these remarkable insect photos on the Atlantic’s In Focus really struck me.

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They are from ….The USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program is a program run by biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey in Maryland. Part of their work is to develop identification tools and keys for native bee species by creating accurate and detailed pictures of native bees and the plants and insects they interact with. The biologists set up a mini studio surrounded by a styrofoam cooler with a black background to make their macro shots, stacking anywhere from 30 to 300 photos to get an image in focus. They have shared their collection of more than 1,200 photos online.
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Alan Taylor chose 20 of them for In Focus. What struck me is how many of the images I looked at on the site were both beautiful and alien. Many of the close ups of the insect faces feel very science fiction to me. It’s definitively worth the time to check out the collection.
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