The common bee.
Shot with Sony a6000, SMC Pentax M Macro 4/50, on top of 57mm of extension tubes.
Processed with Rawtherapee, cleaned up dust with Gimp.
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That is a nice one, @anon71831483!
Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden
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Yes, this looks like a very nice shot of a carnica bee to me - the more commonly used name for both this family of Apis mellifera sub-species and the specific one. I only learned about carpatica as an alternate name now, when I looked it up. I’m always amazed at how calm they are when collecting nectar; with a 50mm lens, you must have been fairly close.
Calm? Hah, I’ve been struggling to get a shot like this for the last couple if years and I’ve only lucked out this time
And yes, the 50mm on top of extension tubes gives me a working distance of just a bit over an inch. The struggle is real.
Well, next challenge up then is to photograph pollen gatherers 
With calm I mean two things: First, they’re not easily disturbed and keep on sucking even if you fire a flash strong enough to light ISO100/f11 at 1:1. Second, I’ve never been stung by a bee away from the hive, even if I did get very close, touched them, brushed them off by mistake etc. The warden bees at the hive take their job seriously though and you better listen.
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You sure sound like you know your bees.
Lovely little creatures.
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