Tuliptree Blossom with Guest
Another Day at Work
Apis Workers' Party
Predator
Some of Your Beeswax
Sedum Bumbler
Look of Defiance
Chicory Bee
Bumbling Bees
Garden Cafe
Buzz By Here - To Infinity and Beyond
Pick Your Poison
Blind Side Attack
On a Mission
Honey Bee on Sedum
Covering the Cosmos
Center of the Cosmos
Three's a Crowd
Popular Spot
On A Pedestal
Big Harry Fireworks Display
To Impress the Girl
Different Perspective
Sweet Ride
Perfect Little Piggies B&W
Flipping the Light Fantastic
Festival of Flights
To the Crowd's Delight
Amish Go Round
Wondersome One
The Stars In Her Eyes
Tuesday's Child
Sleeper Hold
Considering the Next Move
Sugar and Spice
Front Porch Portrait
Caged Competitor
Early Adoration
Child In the Ligtht
Stroll Through the Weeds
Attention Grabbing
Eye Contact
On the Line
Eyes of Wonder
Rounding the Curve
Troubadours of Basin Spring Park
Down by the Creek
Sun Day
Catching Some Light
EAA Fireworks
Hear Me Roar
flight
Joined at the Hip
Four Thunderbirds F-16 fighter jets fly in a tight formation against a backdrop of blue sky and white clouds. The Thunderbirds, a flight demonstration unit of the United States Air Force, were performing at the Sound of Speed Airshow at Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Click on the photo to view a larger, more detailed version of this image.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Apis Workers’ Party
This group of honey bees were busy gathering the small amount of honey that remained in some old honeycomb.
This is a “composite” image. To create this image I focused my camera on an area where the bees were working and locked down the position on my tripod. Then, I snapped a number of photos when bees were in the frame. Then I combined several of the images – with bees in various positions – in Photoshop. All of the bees you see in the image were exactly where you see them…but not all at the same moment in time.
I had it in my mind to create this image since the day I snapped the photos last June. I finally got around to taking the time to combine the bunch. There were four separate shots used to make the image you see here.
This is one you should view full screen. You can see some great detail in the in the bees. To bring up a full-screen image, just click on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Flitting Among the Asters
On a warm summer day, this monarch butterfly was enjoying the weather and the wildflowers.
This was in a vacant field in the middle of an urban area. The warm sun and abundance of wildflowers were attracting a number of butterflies. Of course, they attracted me and my camera.
My goal was to capture the butterflies in flight. Not difficult to do with the number of butterflies in the area. The difficult part was to capture them close up and in focus. They fly erratically, up and down and every direction. Thankfully, with today’s modern digital cameras, you can snap hundreds of photos (if needed) without the expense of photo development to find the right shot. On this particular shoot, I believe I snapped about 140 shots and came away with several keepers. Still, while this particular butterfly is in focus, when you look closely, the image suffers from a bit of motion blur. (Did I mention they fly erratically?)
You can view a full-screen version of this image simply by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Monarch Squadron
All three of these monarch butterflies are in flight. They were circling, and eventually landing and feeding on, the purple asters in a vacant field near the building where I work.
I didn’t see a lot of butterflies this year, but when I did, it was all within a few weeks at the end of the summer. This photo was taken in late September.
In the interest of full disclosure, you should know this is a composite image. I combined three separate photos – each with one butterfly – to create this image of three butterflies. They were all photographed exactly as you see them…in the location that you see them…just at different moments.
You can view more detail in a larger version of this photo, by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Buzz By Here – To Infinity and Beyond!
This portly bumble bee looks as though he’s heading off past the flowers, into infinity, intent on some important bee mission. No doubt, for his honey. (You’ve got to award style points for that perfect form.)
If you have a decent sized monitor, you can get a better view of Buzz by clicking on the photo.
On a Mission
I’m always taking photos of bugs – and bees are some of my favorites. I usually catch bees busy about their business, working on flowers. It’s rare when I can capture one in flight, and even rarer to catch them in focus. This was one of those rare moments.
A couple of other images where I was able to catch bees in flight are Popular Spot and The Beeline.
To get a closer view, click on the image.
Popular Spot
Flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing. This proved to be a popular spot in the meadow. Honey bees and bumble bees were frequenting this clump of purple spiderswort. It was early morning – maybe 6:30 (notice the dew still on the plants) – and they were already hard at it.
To get this shot, I put my camera on a tripod and simply focused on a colorful, well lit clump of flowers and waited. When a bee would enter into the scene, I would start clicking. The bees you see here are exactly how I photographed them…but they were never in the shot together. Since the focus and framing never changed, it was easy to combine the various bees from separate images into one.
To get a better view of the image details, click on it and a larger version will open in another tab.