My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Trying to shoot any insect that’s capable of flying is a challenge. They are always moving. They are not moving as fast our universe, so eloquently explained by Paul in his posting on the Milky way. However, they are elusive and ddarters, tough on auto focus systems. I noticed several bees hovering over these flowers and knelt down to watch and tRyan to get some shots. Even though the bee is blurry, I was pleased with this image. He’s airborne and most of those images are blurry. This one’s in focus enough for posting but not printing. Another reason I like this image is the large glob (technical term) of pollen on his leg that can be clearly seen during flight.
My sister has a small fountain in her backyard. I love the soothing sound that it makes. I was amazed to watch the bees and wasps as they gathered around the fountain to take in water. Since bees are not know to be good swimmers they prefer to find water in small puddles. The bees find all the small pebbles around the fountain, perch on the pebbles and begin lapping up the water. Nature gave me another lesson.
I plopped down on the ground and braced my elbows on my knees to get images of these flowers. The bees were all over the place so I impatiently waited for one of them to come into the viewfinder then shot’em. No harm was done to the flower or the bee. Got the seat of my pants wet but us photogs don’t care. We walk back to our car with dirty britches. 🙂
I had a pretty quiet 4th of July but a busy one. An early bike ride to the coffee shop for a bit of reading and writing. I worked on some shots I took the night before. Did some shopping and bought a second pair of shorts as my older ones have shrunk. I spent a couple of hours at the CSU Trial Garden for some flower photos.
The garden was also quiet when I arrived but that soon changed after people finished their morning coffees and head over there. I was hoping for a butterfly image but the bees and wasps were happily coming into my viewfinder.
For a late lunch I made it over to a mom and pop shop called Taqueria Los Comales and devoured the carnitas plate (see image above). The only thing left on the plate when I finished was the skid mark from my nose when I licked the plate. Man, was it good! Gladly people are observing the fireworks ban so there have been very few fireworks going off. It was a quiet day.
I know this image is not very good but I decided to post it anyway. It is heavily cropped, grainy and not very sharp. So, why post a dud? Because it also reminds me of why I get out to shoot just as much as one of my better images. Paul Lester mentions why he presses the shutter in one of his blogs. He states, “Sometimes I don’t know why I click the shutter, but I just have to. And when that feeling hits, nothing but the click will do.” Man can I relate. I shoot and post images because of the change that occurs in me when I press the shutter. Words like therapy, healing, rejuvenation, quiet time, beauty, getting in touch with nature, getting away from the hustle of city life and pollination. Pollination? Yes, pollination.
Wikipedia defines biotic pollination as the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. This process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. Okay, so what does that mean to me?
The birth and growth of my photography is similar to biotic pollination. The pollinators are the scenes found in my viewfinder. When each one of those scenes touches me, I grow as a person, as a photographer. Each time I venture out a scene enticing me to press the shutter will present itself. So, I’m being fertilized by scenes around me.
Did you ever notice how bumble bees are a lot like the Energizer Rabbit, they just keep on going? They have a mission in life to pollinate and then go after it. Wish my body could keep up that pace but alas the age thing is taking its toll. I’m posting this image because it was taken with the new Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens. I got as close as I could get with the lens then I’ve done a major crop in Lightroom 2, tweaked levels and a bit of saturation. That’s it. I think the lens performs well, especially for a $200 price tag. It’s a keeper and the lens stays on the camera most of the time. It’s a lot lighter to carry around, another one of those age things. 🙂
