Osmia laeta, f, face, Mariposa, CA

Osmia laeta. There are quite a number of Osmia out there. Despite their beauty, they can be irritatingly difficult to split apart. People who can help with identifications are definitely the bottleneck. This beauty comes from Yosemite National Park...part of the many studies of the Claire Kremen lab. Photo by Samia Shell and Lela Versteegen. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.