A close encounter with the treasure flower, or African daisy (Gazania). Captured with a Canon 5DSR and MP-E 65mm, revealing structures the eye often misses. These sun-loving flowers open with light, maximizing pollinator attraction through bold contrast and symmetry.

#Gazania #TreasureFlower #AfricanDaisy #MacroPhotography #ExtremeMacro #Canon5DSR #MPE65 #FlowerPhotography #NaturePhotography #CloseUpNature #TinyWorlds #Botany #PlantScience #Pollinators #FloralPatterns #NatureLovers #InTheField #OutdoorPhotography #SpringColors #NaturalDesign #Biodiversity #VisualDetails #MacroWorld #ThroughTheLens #NatureObservation #HiddenBeauty #ByMaikeldeBakker #MaikeldeBakkerPhotography #WonderingLens

Before heading back to our hotel, we returned to ’t Zwaantje—good food, warm light, and a well-earned rest after a long day. Sitting outside in the spring sun, something small joined us at the table: a mining bee, genus Andrena (metselbij in Dutch).

While most would simply enjoy the moment, I saw an opportunity.

My Canon 5DSR was within reach—as usual—so I quickly swapped from the Sigma 24–70mm Art to the Canon MP-E 65mm. From that moment on, it became a different kind of scene. I dropped low and went full paparazzi.

Christel laughed. “Are you trying to kill it?” she joked, watching me fire shot after shot.

And honestly, I understood how it looked.

But macro at this level is unforgiving. At high magnification, depth of field becomes razor-thin—sometimes less than a millimeter. Every breath, every slight movement shifts focus from perfect to lost. Shooting in bursts isn’t excess; it’s necessity.

Andrena bees are solitary ground-nesters, often overlooked compared to honeybees, yet essential pollinators in early spring ecosystems.

So there I was—chasing sharpness on a creature most people wouldn’t even notice.

A quiet moment at a table, turned into a study of life at the smallest scale.

#MiningBee #Andrena #Metselbij #MacroPhotography #ExtremeMacro #Canon5DSR #MPE65 #InsectPhotography #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #CloseUpNature #TinyWorlds #DepthOfField #MacroLife #SpringSun #Pollinators #BeePhotography #NatureLovers #InTheField #OutdoorMoments #BehindTheScenes #PhotographyLife #PatienceAndPractice #NatureObservation #HiddenNature #FieldMoments #VisualStorytelling #ByMaikeldeBakker #MaikeldeBakkerPhotography #WonderingLens

[9260] - 5.8X

TA DA! the last in the series - and I don't know what part of the flower is this (again).
With this, I'm out of new stuff as I've been lethargic lately and not sure what to do with my camera (and my life altogether). Anyway, we'll see what the archives hide for me...

#nature #natural #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #goodmorning

[9259] - 5.8X

I think this one is before the last in this series! Phew!
This is still part of the onion flower but honestly I don't recall what was it 🤷🏻‍♂️

#nature #natural #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #goodmorning

[9255] - 5.8X

Posting too late for today 😬 so much sleep was needed after all these sirens.
So, I'm nearing the end of this series and not sure I have more stuff to post, so I'll be going back to the archive soon.
This is not a magic mushroom, but part of an onion flower ✌️ again.

#flower #plant #nature #natural #onion #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #goodmorning

[9254] - 5.8X

the pulp part (or whatever it is called) which later on opens up to make a small onion flower. shot it before at 3,2X and now it's in 5.8X! It's blurry for sure despite my trials to sharpen it (and it's better here than in the original anyway). However, as usual, if you step away a bit, it becomes somewhat better to see.

#onion #flower #nature #natural #plant #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #goodmorning

[9248] - 5.8X

Remember our dear onion? It's back! 😀 This time with 5.8 magnification instead of 3.2!
It's fuzzy and blurry, but trust me, I've tried to sharpen it here. Not sure what is this part of the flower but maybe the stigma?
Looks as if it was shot with a pinhole, though!

#onion #nature #natural #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #flower #goodmorning

[9241] - 5.8X

This is another part of the coin, and it's some calligraphic element, which I don't know its name unfortunately. However, the two lines closer to the upper edge are supposedly what we call "Tanween" تنوين - Nunation.

#abstract #coin #metal #metallic #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #goodmorning

[9231] - 5.8X

Still with my coin here and a 5.8 magnification factor for the first part of the word فلس (fils). I've mentioned before that the diameter of the coin is about 2cm. The magnification is quite large that the dot of ف doesn't appear even in this shot (and it's not cropped).
The colored dots could be chromatic noise but could also be the metal itself (giving reflections from the hard light from the side). Whatever it is, the color got pronounced more as I increased saturation (why did I do that and the coin is metallic and almost silver-like? 🤷🏻‍♂️)

#metal #metallic #macro #macrophotography #extrememacro #coin #fils #abstract #goodmorning

[9229] - 5.8X

Now, we have a change of subject in this series. From plants to a coin! Even though it was done indoors (no breeze or anything) but it was still hard to do because I didn't want to use focus stacking here again, and thus everything was soft and had to be sharpened a lot.
This is the zero digit on a 50 fils coin (I wanted to take a picture for comparison but forgot to!) - I guess you can do a little search to check out a Kuwaiti 50 fils coin (and by the way we use the Eastern Arabic numerals, which is closer to Hindi numerals, so zero is a dot like this). The diameter of the coin is ~ 2cm.

#digit #metal #metallic #coin #currency #money #fils #macro #extrememacro #macrophotography #goodmorning