I love the way these critters hover over our flower beds, just asking to be photographed. They look like bees, but they're actually a species of fly.

By getting in close and using a relatively wide aperture on my macro lens, I was able to throw the background out of focus into a pleasing pastel blur.

Bee Fly, Bombylidae family, Bombylius sp. These guys look vicious, but they’re totally harmless—to us. You may have seen them hovering around your garden flowers. The adults feed on nectar and pollen, just like honeybees. However, they’re actually parasites: Mom lays her eggs in the eggs and larvae of various small wasps. When her eggs hatch, they eat their hosts from the inside out.

Canon 1D X, Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS macro lens, 1/1250 second, f/5.0, ISO 2000.