Well, I guess you’d guess by my rarely-changed header image that I like bees.
It’s true, I do. Especially the really furry, busy, buzzy, chubby bumble-bees. The fuzzier and bumblier, the better.
One of the first really good picture I ever took with my digital camera (please humor me in that it’s “good”) was a picture of a bumbler working over one of the zinnias in the front flower bed at my old house in the Northeast section of town:
From the same day/session/bee, here’s another angle, where you can see the bee’s face:
Last week, I revisited the bee-and-zinnia theme with my newer digital camera, a Canon Powershot G9 (my old camera is a Powershot A70, which sill works, but is frustratingly slow, though it does take really nice pictures – I think its sensor is actually maybe nicer than the one in the G9, just the rest of its inner workings are a little creakier).
Without further ado, please enjoy some bees and zinnias.
Here is another bee’s face…One of the reasons that I bought the G9 was that its macro capabilities were highly rated. The ratings were not undeserved, I think!
This bee is much furrier than the one above and more yellow. I notice as I take more bee pictures that bees are as individual in their appearance as any other living thing. Sure, there’s a limited arrangement of colors and features you’ll see…they’re more consistent in their appearance than, say, dogs, but each bee is a distinct little critter.
Here’s a honeybee, pollen anointing her leg joints, digging in for the edibles.
This bumbler’s tattered wings makes me think she’s seen quite a few expeditionary runs.
Same bee, head on. She was debonairly dusted with pollen – not too hung up on remaining pristine and tidy.
Not a bee – instead, here is a tiny green grashopper with pollen stuck to its mandibles:
And here’s a yellow butterfly whose body is shadowed through its wings.
Very nice! Thanks for making me smile : )
Lovely things, bees are.
Last week, two bumblebees, each the size of an adult vole, hung out with me on a porch for a while — it may be that part of the country (in PA) because I also saw the largest dragonfly I’ve ever seen. I especially like watching honeybees/wasps/hornets cleaning their faces like cats.