Quick one from this morning. Shot before the sun came up over the mountain. Love that the catmint pollen is white – and that she’s making a mess. Good fun. Note the graininess of the shot. That’s caused by high ISO (which is an artifact of a fast shutter speed coupled with low light).
Tag: Catmint
Throwin’ the Catmint Pollen all Over!
This one is pretty neat because of the pollen she’s throwing all over. They seem to be good housekeepers in the hive, but all bets are off in the garden. They make a mess.
One thing to keep in mind about this picture and the dynamic stuff going on is the plane of focus. You probably remember discussions calling it “razor thin”. In this case, a slice of only about 1/8″ (3mm for those of you who speak metric) is in focus. So the pollen grains in front of and behind that slice you won’t even see – they blend into the foreground or background. In other words, we’re probably only seeing a very small fraction of the mess she’s making. Neat!
Catmint and Angelina
What a fantastic combination. Some shadows again, but I really love this picture. Now and then I get a catch that just moves me. This is one of them. Hope you enjoy it, too.
Lots Going on on the Catmint
Catmint again. And sedum angelina in the background again. Was trying to shoot some bees and got distracted by the ladybug (turns out they have compound eyes, too – not a surprise but neat to see in some other shots). As I was following her (him?) with the camera, a bee showed up. Strange composition and kind of distracting with the blurs in the foreground and the deep shadows…but pretty neat to get both with a bit of focus. We’ll call the ladybug an “inadvertent pollinator”, too.
So it is a Longhorn…
Still trying to figure out the species. But a great grab yesterday of it in flight. Flies lots more like a bumble than a honeybee. So pleased with this shot, too. So much detail of the little one. Plus it’s always so nice to see a sharp one in flight. I try lots but it’s really tough. Have so many “almosts”.
Raining here today so not much going on with the bees. Got another yesterday of maybe the biggest pollen baskets I’ve ever seen on a honeybee. Look forward to that tomorrow. And we’ll get out of the catmint for at least a day.
Maybe a Different Kind of Longhorn?
I really don’t know what bee this is. Shot it yesterday and then saw another one (the same one?) today. Looks in lots of ways to be a longhorn…but in others it doesn’t. Seems a good bit bigger. And thicker, too. And the eye is different. But those antennae… Anyway, it’s a neat looking bee. The honeybees seem to want to chase it off, I noticed. On the catmint again. What a great time of year for bees…and flowers…and life…
Flying over the Catmint
They’re really going after the catmint lately. From Wednesday of this week. Look at the texture of her wing! And note that it’s kind of chewed up…and she’s lost a lot of hair on the top of her thorax. Getting toward the end of her cycle. Already. Don’t know how it is for you, but seems to me that the relative time between birthdays shrinks every year. Who said that youth is wasted on the young?
Very Quickly – On the Catmint Again
What a day. Working to get out of here for a photo trip tomorrow. Behind on everything. This one from yesterday on the catmint!
Finally on the Catmint
Still having an awful time finding bees to shoot. Not sure why. Maybe the wind. All three hives are active, but…it’s a struggle figuring out where they are. Got a couple on dandelions yesterday – and this one on the catmint. Something seems out of balance on the crop today – the weight of the composition’s wrong. Maybe I’ll fix it later, but too much to do today so…you get a great bee with imbalanced composition. That catmint may or may not be called “Little Titch”. For whatever that’s worth.
Bee Chillin’ on the Catmint
Dang, it’s been cold lately here in the Rockies. 41 degrees this morning as I type this post. Rainy, too. Had a brief window in which a few bees were out yesterday and got this shot. Not my best work. But…I love beeface and you can see her tongue so clearly. And it’s fresh – shot yesterday. So there’s that. Hoping for better today, but who knows? Rained a lot overnight and projected high is only 65 degrees.
Not that I’m really complaining. Been a wonderful, cool, sometimes-wet Spring. A real spring. And the lavender is coming on…
