David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of nature and the natural world. Plants, animals, and wildlife from around the world.
Images of Bumble and Carpenter Bees taken in my backyard this afternoon with a macro lens. The Bumble Bees were working the fast fading Rhododendron flowers for any remaining pollen. The male Carpenter Bees appeared to be flying stationary guarding territory — only moving when challenged by another male. The down side of the Carpenter Bees is the large holes that they drill into the wood around the house for their nests.
Western Meadowlark Singing. Late last night while not able to sleep after a loud spring thunderstorm, I started to read Moose Peterson’s book “CAPTURED — LESSONS from BEHIND the LENS of a LEGENDARY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER“. In the book I saw an image of a Western Meadowlark. This morning while driving to work I was listening to a chapter of the book “The Last Stand” on Sirrius/XM radio and heard that “Sitting Bull heard from a Meadowlark that he would be killed by a Lakota”. With two references to a Meadowlark, I remembered that I had taken an image of a similar bird while on my “Gone to See America 2009” road trip while in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. When I took the image, I didn’t know what type of bird it was, but was enchanted by its singing.
Macro images taken in my back yard of a white wildflower, bee in a Rhododendron flower and a newly opened Maple leaf. After a brief afternoon rain storm, I went out with the same kit as yesterday. I like looking close with a macro lens, especially in the spring when flowers are blooming and the bees are active. I think the white flower is an invasive “Star of Bethlehem” (Ornithogalium umbellatum)
I took this image 2 years ago while driving into Yosemite National Park. I noticed something bright red in my rear view mirror. This was not red flashing lights, but rather something red in the woods. I turned around and found these flowers blooming. I did not know what they were — a plant or fungus. They were later identified as Snow Plants (Sarcodes sanguinea). Although plants, they do not use chlorophyll for photosynthesis, but rather get carbohydrates from coniferous trees via a shared mycorrhizal fungus.
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We had to get up early in order to depart for the Tarrales Bird Watching field trip at 05:30 AM. On the bus ride to Tarrales I got a grab shot of some school girls waiting for the bus to school. A good fraction of the folks on this tour were part of the Road Scholar contingent attending the Enrichment Voyage. As such the average age was higher, and we knew that we would not be hiking as far as we did yesterday to the volcano. Even though we left early, it wasn’t early enough for best bird viewing. Also, my 70-300 mm lens did not have the reach to get good images of the birds we did see. Our guide was good at finding the birds in the canopy. I only have one image of a midget owl, and it is a crop zoomed to 100%. It would have been a bit better if I took my D3x body with double the sensor size vs. the D3s body. I took the D3s because of the better low light capabilities coupled with the 70-300 f/5.6 limits. Jon got some better images with his 400 mm f/4 + TC.
After the Owl, I then switched to my 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens and focused on closer objects. In addition to close-up images of insects and flowers, the 105 mm lens is also great for people. The remainder of the following images are of a small girl in Tarrales, a local jail, a close up of a China Berry, and of a flower with a bee. Then images from the bus ride back to the M/V Explorer. A school girl, Guatemalla mass transit, a coconut vendor with his machete, limes at a produce stand, woman walking past a produce vendor, a cross-eyed guy next to a “Prohibido Estanciona” sign, woman vendor cutting coconut, her son, and several images from an open market produce vendor.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed and/or purchased here.