Coming up to the landing site.

for SquareUp 1.16.21 and Six Word Saturday 1.16.21

Fantastic fuzzy Friday flower frenzy

You’ve seen these flowers before with the giant bees but datura, although highly poisonous, does not discriminate. Perhaps it’s woke. I don’t know. But I do know bees of all sizes go crazy for these flowers and why not? There’s lots of room to maneuver, the better to collect that pollen, my dear!

I’m on a driving trip to our daughter and son-in-law’s in southern California for a short while, so forgive me if my visits get a bit spotty, although I’m planning to try to keep up on both comments and visits. Yes, I’ll be very, very careful as well. 🙂

Lens-Artists Challenge #121 – Focus on the Subject

I was excited to see that the Lens-Artists challenge theme would be announced the prior week…until I saw that Patti’s theme was “Focus on the Subject.” OK. Maybe it didn’t matter that I knew in advance. 🙂 I felt marginally better when Tina said she had to ask Patti the direction she planned to go. Me? I figure as long as I can be on-topic (even if not Patti’s emphasis), I should be good to go.

“Focus” can be a noun or a verb. If you don’t literally focus (v.) on your subject, you might get something like I got here, the focus (n.) on everything other than the bird I wanted you to see.

Of course, you might also find that complete lack of focus (accidental) gives an impression that works, such as “speed” here.

The entire shot might be your focus and in focus…

…or your focus might be just what’s in front of you. Anything more would distract and cause the focus not to be on your subject. Let’s all say together, “Bokeh.”

So…if you focus (v.) on your subject, it will bee the thing that enables others to focus (v.) on your focus (n.), causing the flowering of a beautiful relationship. Ha! How could I resists when my focus (n.) is always on making a trip here as delightful an experience as possible? If it works that gives me a buzz! 🙂 Happy Saturday!

Macro Monday…distance macros

The generally preferred method of taking macro photos is with a macro lens, unless you’re carrying a camera with a telephoto lens for bird photos. In that case, the preferred method of taking macros is from about 6′. 🙂 That’s what happens at the Preserve unless I’m taking my photos with my phone. In this case, think telephoto at a distance. Welcome to Monday.

Friday flowers…with bees

It’s not just about the birds.

The Riparian Preserve seems to have gone to the birds and it’s true, there are all sorts of birds and lots of them. Birders are there daily, some with camera lenses as big as my leg and almost as long. To them my telephoto lens must look like a macro lens.

But it’s not just about the birds or even about the animals (most abundant of which are the rabbits.) There are plants, too, and the palo verde, native to the Sonoran desert where we are, is one of my favorites. I love the bright yellow and the feathery look.

Palo verde means “green stick” in Spanish and once you get closer, you can see why.

The trees can photosynthesize through their green bark, an important adaptation for a tree that drops its leaves during the warm season and in response to fall cooling. Palo verdes also drop stems and branches to combat drought. ~Desert USA

Two-fer Tuesday

This is the action video that goes with the bee shot I shared some time ago. Please spend the minute and two seconds to watch the entire video so you see why it’s a two-fer.

Wild Wednesday…incoming

Not where I am now, but while scrolling through photo files, it jumped out at me. Moving felt a bit like this. 🙂

Jo’s Monday walk…a break in the rain

When I arrived in France mid-September, the Franche-Comté was once again dry with the possibility water rationing lurking. However, our prayers for rain were answered, as it rained almost every day of the three weeks I was there as well as many of the days since I returned at the beginning of October. As you can imagine, we relished every bit of sunshine and every walk when it wasn’t actually raining.

We often look for new places to walk the dogs and on this day, we parked on the side of the road to follow an uphill path.

When it gets wet in the forest, mushrooms/fungi abound. This year provided a bumper crop!

Diving into his meal with enthusiasm

for Six Word Saturday