I’m as busy as this.

I wasn’t the only one at the park on Friday. This guy was having a great time. I have been too, meeting with two more friends today. How’s your week been so far? It’s hard to beat being busy with friends.

Diving into pink

I’m excited not only to share a favorite subject, a bee nose diving into a flower, but my first photo duo using the slider, which I only found thanks to Dan at nofacilites. He’s been giving lessons on using the block editor and as far as the slider goes, once I knew where to look, it was simple to find. Thanks so much, Dan. This particular bee and flowers were at Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona. These cacti and flowers were very small but eye-catching.

for Squares: bright and Life in Colour: pink

Lens-Artists Challenge #139 – Special Moments…Arizona

This week Tina has set us a daunting task: to share special moments with the Lens-Artists community. Just the thought of trying to choose only five or six special moments out of all the years of photos almost made me give up in despair. Instead, I decided instead to limit my special moments to moments since moving to Arizona just under a year ago…and believe me, that’s hard enough!

Not long after we arrived at our new rental house, the torch cactus in the backyard bloomed with beautiful flowers that have a fleeting life of only about one day. I was stunned by their beauty and thrilled that they bloomed a number of times in the ensuing weeks. What a welcome to the desert! But like much of the desert, be careful how close you get! Beauty and danger have a habit of co-existing here.

On several visits to the Riparian Preserve, I’d spoken with a birder from, judging by his accent, either Boston or that part of the world, about the harrier hawk (he pronounced it “hairyah”) that he was an expert on. This day I followed him down a back path where he not only pointed out the hawk but told me about where he thought her nest was, her usual flight patterns, and so on. Here’s one of my shots of that special moment.

This pollen-covered bee ecstatically dancing in a poisonous datura flower was definitely a moment that brought joy to my heart.

Me finally catching a cormorant catching a fish was pretty exciting as was catching him drop it and an egret snatching it away a few minutes later.

There’ve been so many more special moments since we’ve moved: in Sedona and Saguaro National Park, seeing a vermillion flycatcher at Tuscon’s Sweetwater Wetlands and seeing alpine growth at the top of Mt. Lemmon. The most special moments though don’t have any photos…being here to spend time with and help out my aging parents and, weirdest of all the special moment, the three of us getting our second Covid vaccinations as well and my husband getting his first. What a year when getting shots is probably the highlight!

This last shot may not seem special but it’s of the only squirrel I’ve seen in this area since we moved here. Small joys.

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.