Thank you for the nice comments Beth. I'm glad you liked the shot.
I have many more bee pictures that are much closer than the one you reviewed. I was once a little phobic about bees too, having been stung on the forehead when I was little, but it was my own fault for trying to remove it forcibly. Now I shoot them close-up while they're flying all around me and I don't give it a second thought. They're just not interested in humans and only retaliate when we stress them too far. And at the cost of their own lives in the process I might add. It's the much larger bumblebees & wasps that make me step back, sometimes very rapidly.
:} Steve