Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Basking Monarch

We spent a day in San Luis Obispo last week. It is a fun place to wander around and the weather was great for it. We found this guy while walking the hound by the mission.

Saturday, September 16, 2006
Resting Dragon

This is another one of those subjects you can easily walk by without noticing. I was about to get in the car and he was down near the ground. His wings are not out of focus, they are actually fluttering. I think that's what caught my eye.

Friday, August 18, 2006
Milk-Bee

In case you were wondering what the flower looked like that caught my attention in yesterday's photo. (I know it was just keeping you awake all night! :0) This is about 6" further up. And the bee? Well, she was nice enough to fly in right after I was done finishing up with yesterday's subject!

I actually got quite a few interesting shots of the bee working on these flowers. I picked this one because it shows her wings so nicely.

Thursday, August 17, 2006
Long-horn Caterpillar

The hound and I were wandering down De La Vina Street today. Only a few steps into our walk I noticed a beautiful orange flower growing by the edge of the sidewalk. When I leaned down to examine it I found a pleasant surprise!

Of course when I saw this guy I suspected that my beautiful flower was actually a weed. But that's ok. On one small plant there were two of these large Monarch caterpillars.

Monarchs dine almost exclusively on Milkweed. It gives them a lovely defense against predators. You see since the Milkweed is poisonous (and tastes terrible to almost anything with the apparent exception of Monarch caterpillars) It makes the caterpillars and resulting butterflies poisonous and taste terrible to just about anything that would try to make a snack of them.

As I was sitting on the sidewalk, watching the caterpillar it was amazing how many people went by (looking at me like I was crazy) and missed such an interesting sight. Of course I guess it is only interesting to crazy photographers like me and other fortunate people with child-like curiosity.

Monday, July 31, 2006
Hovering Bee

She's been busy! I am surprised she can still fly with all that pollen on her legs.

Saturday, July 22, 2006
Bee Dazzler

The bees have been wild this year. And, as I have yet to be stung, they are still one of my favorite subjects. Actually, I love photographing flowers and the bees add some life.

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Serendipity

It is really interesting to me to see the motion in this shot. The bee is actually leaning into the turn like a bike rider.

I was framing up the shot of the flower when the bee flew in from the left. She made a beautiful arc into the photo and I hit the shutter release as many times as I could!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Red Dragon

I like dragonflies and this guy and his friends were putting on quite a show. They were diving down to the surface of the water and skimming across it (hence the name I guess,) I got a few action shots but this is my favorite!

While I was trying to identify this guy I found many sites incorrectly identifying damsel flies as dragonflies. The way you tell the difference is by how they hold their wings when they are resting. This is a dragonfly, wings perpendicular to the body. A damselfly holds it's wings back against it's body.

Monday, July 10, 2006
Glowing Bee

Today, when we took The Hound for her afternoon walk we bumped into one of our neighbors. She was working in her garden like she does almost every day. Part of her garden was particularly attractive to the bees, so I took the opportunity to get a few bee portraits.

Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Hoverfly

He looks like a bee, he drinks nectar like a bee, but apparently he is a fly. And such a shiny one!

Monday, May 8, 2006
Monarch Chrysalis

We went for another walk today. Along the way we stopped by our neighbor's yard to check on the caterpillar from our Saturday walk, and this is what we found! I thought he looked like he was trying to get comfortable there.

Sunday, April 30, 2006
Nun Bee

The sun came out today!!! Not something that would normally be such a surprise in California, but this year you have to take it one day at a time.

In honor of our beautiful sunny day we decided to take a bit of a rose garden tour. We went to the Mission rose garden and the rose garden at Fess Parker's Resort on Cabrillo.

This was one of my favorite roses of the day. I was actually taking pictures of it before the bee flew into the picture. She was quite the ham! She hovered all around in front of the rose for me.

Sunday, April 16, 2006
Honey Bee Hovering

This was actually from a Hound walk from a couple of weeks ago. I try not to chase too many bees while she is with me, but this guy was really showing off right beside the sidewalk.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Web of Dew

There are a lot of spiders around here but they sure make some beautiful creations. I always wondered how the drops stayed on the web. I always thought they should just run down to the lowest point and drip off. Took a little research but the answer is really interesting.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Freesia Buzz

This image was one shot before yesterday's photo of the day.

It was a good walk with the hound. Maybe because it has finally warmed up a little during the day. (Personally I liked the snow! But I am not conscious early enough in the morning to go play in it before it melts :)

Monday, February 27, 2006
Hiding Heliconian in a Strawberry Tree

This guy thought he had a good hiding place. And actually, he did. I was impressed by how his wings blended with the angle of the leaves. Fortunately, I found him anyway.

Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunning Julia Heliconian Butterfly

Took a while to get him to say cheese! :-D

Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Giant Swallowtail

Interesting lighting in this shot, it almost looks like a flash, but it was just the way the shadows were around the little patch of flowers this guy found.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Bee in a Lavender Field

AKA "Rabbit Ears."

This is a beautiful Lavender field at Lotusland in Montecito.

Monday, January 2, 2006
Hovering Bee

I love the pollen on her legs, and the tight blossom right below her. It looks like something from a beautiful cake. :-D

Thursday, December 29, 2005
Julia Marigold

I like the way he matches the flower, almost like camouflage.

Monday, November 21, 2005
Another point of view

Like yesterday this is another image that was taken at the same time as a completely different looking shot of a similar subject. Although in this case it is not the exact same subject, you can see that changing only the angle and the view in the background give them a completely different feel.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Monarch & Zinnia

I really love the background in this image. It is a bit abstract. And the low aperture that makes the background so interesting made the butterfly's wings just out of focus enough to look like they are fluttering a bit.

Monday, November 7, 2005
Hovering Bee

If you have been watching the site for a while you know that I like to chase bees. So far this has turned out well for me. I assume my luck will run out eventually, but for now it's making for some really nice shots.

This one even made it to one of my greeting cards.