Arguably an ugly critter, but I think it’s fairly compelling. Especially on the backdrop of the delicate dahlia petals. And I’m a little backed-up on the bonuses, so there’s that…
Bonus – Some Kind of Fly on a Dahlia Petal
Tag: dahlia
Bee 056 – Honeybee on a Relatively Intact Dahlia
The light on this one is a little rough, but the bee looks great. And it looks like the grasshoppers haven’t gotten to this one yet. Mid-September, 2018.
Bee 040 – Metallic Green Sweat Bee on a Dahlia
This is one of my better shots of one of my favorite bees – on a wrecked Dahlia again. Love the eyes.
Shot a few of these yesterday, too – they’re so tiny – and busy. They don’t pose as well as some of the others. But I love this shot. You can really see the detail and the color.
Bee 013 – Odd Light on a Bumble on a Chewed-up Dahlia
I’m kind of enamored of weird light – like on that tulip below. When it almost changes the color of the bee.
This poor Dahlia was just wrecked. Really most of them get that way even before they have a chance to open fully. The grasshoppers are brutal to them.
That said, the bees don’t seem to mind – or even notice. I’ve said it before, but there’s a lesson there. It’s something about purpose. For us humans, the purpose sometimes seems to be the flawless beauty. That’s a primary driver for us with the flowers we plant – and enjoy and love.
But for bees?? What’s for dinner? This seems like a good one! And as chewed up as that Dahlia is, it’s dinner. Its purpose.
Honeybee on a Dahlia
This is the first in a long series of bees on imperfect flowers (this one having been ravaged by grasshoppers). One of the basic tenets of photography, I’m told, is to pick the best examples of your subjects (and backgrounds) that you can. For this site, I’m not sure I agree. Not only because it’s primarily about the bees (and it is), but also for a couple of other, related reasons.
First, there’s beauty to be found all the way through the cycle. This deserves more than a single sentence (and maybe I’ll yammer about it sometime), but it’s just true. And not only because it’s part of the cycle – but because the beauty is inherent.
Second, there are some who manicure their gardens – they “deadhead” the moment a blossom is past its prime – or if the blossom is damaged. That’s one point of view. And I’ll not argue with it. But I will point out that the bee doesn’t give even a single, half-a-damn that the flower looks torn up. There’s pollen there – there’s energy there – there are winter stores there… And she’s hard at work on this particular wreck of a blossom.
It’s really more than just “the eye of the bee(badpun)holder”. It’s real. It’s what’s for dinner.