Wing Photos
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Annas in Flight
This is another shot of one of the beautiful Anna's hummingbirds I was following around Valley Hills Nursery in Carmel. It looks like a beautiful spring day, but a beautiful nursery can make any day look like a beautiful spring day in California.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Thoughtful Hummer
This little guy was actually as interested in me as I was in him. He flew around a bit and kept coming back to this spot. As I moved closer and closer every few shots, he would tilt his head back and forth seemingly trying to see what I was up to. Even at rest he was graceful and beautiful.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Nectar Sample
This is another shot of my friend from the Carmel Nursery. This is after he got bored with me. He watched me for a while, tilting his head back and forth, and when he decided I was safe or maybe not very interesting, he decided to make the rounds to his favorite flowers. He was so graceful as he hovered from flower to flower.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Taking Flight
This weekend between rainstorms, I had the great pleasure of wandering around a beautiful nursery in Carmel California. Valley Hills Nursery is one of my favorite spots to visit when I'm in the area, and not only for thier plants. They always have a very friendly Hummingbird population, this weekend they seemed to be even more cooperative than usual. This beauty was actually almost hamming it up for me, he seemed as curious about me as I was about him.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monarch Profile
Monarch Butterfly [Danaus plexippus] on a Zinnia at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History's Butterflies alive. It took a bit of manuvering to get the profile shot I was looking for, and although there are many more opportunities at the Natural History Museum, it's still fun to try to get just the shot you're looking for.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Fire Skimming Dragon
Looking back I see it has been a while since I posted a nature shot. For that matter it has been a while since I really spent some time outside with my macro lens, which is something I'm going to have to work on. In the mean time I found this beauty who was waiting in an old shoot of images from a small duck pond in Goleta.
This little Dragon is called a Flame Skimmer. The detail on his (or her) wings is so beautiful. I have always loved chasing them with my camera. This shot was taken while hanging akwardly off of a bridge over a small duck pond, it seemed that was his favorite spot. And while he would land other places, the perch over the side of the bridge was where he was comforatble enough to let me get close. It took some patience, but I was able to get close enough over the period of about five minutes to get the shot I wanted.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Nursery Hummer Close Up
A beautiful Anna's Hummingbird at one of my favorite spots, Terra Sol Nursery in Goleta, California. I imagine, living in a nursery for them must be like us living in an all you can eat buffet with all your favorite foods. It seems like a pretty good life, they live in there a lot closer than most hummingbirds because of the abundance of food. And the Nursery's cat is very mellow and never bothers them, but keeps anything else away that might be a predator.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
November Butterfly
Our winter friends are back! The last couple of weeks have seen quite an increase in the number of Monarch butterflies around Santa Barbara. This one floated by as I was chasing a Hummingbird. The hummingbird turned out to be too shy, but there is always someone around who loves to have their picture taken!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Flexible Damsel
Well that looks kind of painful. If I sleep funny on my pillow I have to go to the chiropractor in the morning. Of course I guess that would not be a problem if I was that flexible.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Fluttering Monarch
This was from a trip to a local nursury just before Christmas. Santa Barbara is a popular place for them to hang out in the Winter. We actually have a grove of Eucalyptus trees they congregate in. I'd love to go take more shots of them, but the way it's raining right now I don't think I could make it through the mud.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Hummer in Flight
She just hovered there for a while. I think she was as interested in checking me out as I was interested in her. She did not seem scared. (It probably did not hurt that there were about 20 other hummingbirds around and I had not eaten any of them yet.) She sat and ate casually after she was done looking at me. I'm glad she stopped though, it made for a much nicer shot.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Resting Dragon
This is actually an older shot, one of my favorites. In fact
it is one of the images on my business card.
The branch is a dead branch on a ficus tree that we saved
from being thrown away. It was sitting on the patio
of our old apartment and the branch was hanging out over the
railing. Unfortunately, shooting straight out would have given me
a background of the next apartment building. I had
to lean out to get a better angle with trees and filtered sun
in the background. Even though the background is totally
out of focus, this made for a much nicer shot.
BTW, the ficus is much happier these days. It is in the back yard
and growing like crazy. We are a little crazy that way. We like
to save things and nurse them back to health. Plants, hound dogs
whatever needs a home! I must get that from
my parents.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Evening Bee
My intention was to chase hummingbirds. But they must not have been very hungry tonight. Of course the bees are always good for a few nice shots.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Armored Bee
Well my description was not quite as scientific as I usually like... "Big Black Bee!" But it's late and I was not able to track her down. I did have fun taking pictures of her though! Her copper colored wings were reflecting the evening sun beautifully! I was trying to get a shot that really hilted the wings and their amazing structure but this ended up being my favorite.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Sunset Dinner Flight
The hummers have gone wild around here lately. We have three feeders up, but it is a little hard to compete with all the flowers. There are actually three birds that fight over this bush regularly. Even though the bush has plenty to go around.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Egret in Flight
This image was taken at the same time as the happy seals. The seals were just to the left of this guy. It was a fun day to be out with my camera!
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Popular Rose
It looks like there's gonna be a fight!
Actually, they got along really well and shared the flower.
At one point there was even a third bee.
I have been known to chase bees, but in this case I was
drawn to this scene by the same thing they were.
There are a lot of beautiful roses out there but
the yellow/red variegated varieties are my favorites!
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Conducting Duck
She looks like she is conducting an orchestra. Or perhaps directing traffic? Either way she is really into what she is doing. She was actually alternating between stretching and flapping hard and I got her in mid-flap.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Somebody's Watchin'
This is a closer crop of one of my shots of the dragon from a couple of weeks ago. (Sorry to any Entophobics out there!) I like this shot not only because you can actually make out the hexagonal segments of his eyes. Which is pretty cool, but also because of the shadows of the hairs. There are hairs between his eyes, you cant see them, they are pointing straight at the camera. But you can see the shadows on his eye.
Friday, November 3, 2006
Blue-eyed Darner
We spent the last couple of days in Pismo Beach, it was a nice
place to spend a few days.
One of the places we wandered into after lunch was
a garden store that had all kinds of interesting plants
and things. The most interesting of them was this
Dragonfly that buzzed me when I was looking at a fountain (his fountain?)
Of course he froze when I found his perch which gave me a great
opportunity to get some nice shots of him.
His eyes are extremely beautiful, you can see the
hexagonal structure of the segments of his eyes in the
shape of the highlight on his left eye.
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Anna
We when to a beautiful place in Carpinteria today called Seaside Gardens.
Seaside Gardens is a nursery and botanic garden. They had some amazing
plants. And it was a hummingbirds' paradise.
One of the things I liked about the Gardens is they had the plants
separated by country of origin, both in the sales area and the nicely
designed botanic gardens.
So, if you are in the area and you find yourself in need of a Lotus for your
Koi pond or anything else remotely exotic just get off the 101 at Exit 88
(Padero Lane or Santa Claus Lane) go toward the mountains and turn right.
Seaside Gardens will be on your left.
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.
Popular images
Santa Barbara, CA
Stearns Wharf
360° VR images
More Virtual Tours
Sun Star Flower Care
Photo of the Day Stats
1153 Images
1846 Keywords
131955 Unique Visitors