I was shooting some backlit photos this morning of the Honey Bees and managed to fluke this one which looks like the Honey Bees queuing with social distancing!
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I’ve been so carried away with all the activities of Springtime that I have not taken any “Artmospheric” shots lately. Yes, that’s a word I made up! So this morning I waited patiently at this French Lavender Flower that was nicely backlit by the sun with a great dark canvas provided by a distant Eucalyptus Tree that was in the shade.
I didn’t have to wait too long (thankfully for Wally’s sake who was getting bored!) until a Honey Bee turned up and managed to shoot this photo. This has kicked started me to take more “Artmospheric” shots and hope to bring you more soon!
{Click image(s) to view on Flickr - opens in new tab}All around the hills in the Algarve the Barbary Nut Iris has started to flower. I’m certainly no flower expert but it’s a great sight to see the purple flowers covering the landscape.
The odd thing about the Barbary Nut Iris is that the flower has a very short life, just half a day! It opens around Noon, closes at dusk and doesn’t open again. So it’s crucial the Bees do their job of pollination.
I set the camera up and focused on one flower, I used the 500mm lens and f/4 to create a very small depth of field and waited and waited and waited…….. The Bees were landing on all the other flowers except this one, typical. Then after about 30 minutes one finally came along and even stayed in the very small focus plane.
Whilst drinking my morning “Bica” (Portuguese Espresso-type Coffee) I couldn’t help notice the stunning colours of the Bottle Brush Plant (Callistemon) against the glorious bright blue morning sky. The Honey Bees where busy collecting from it so I grabbed the camera.
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In this region of the Algarve, there are a lot of Honey producers and no matter where you go you will find Hives, even in very remote locations.
It might be near the end of December, but the Bee’s are still hard at work.
This one looks like it’s doing the Michael Jordon Air Walk!
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