fourpointedstar

This particular morning, I saw very few spiders. While I do enjoy capturing a bee in a flower, it’s more fun to photograph other insects as they pollenate.  Spiders are even more unique; typically they’re “hiding”, hunched in an area of the plant that is out of the way, but paying attention to YOU the photographer.  It’s a cat-and-mouse game, but for the spider, it’s a monster-and-mouse game.

I took a much closer photo of this tiny jumping spider but the photo lacked any sense of scale. While the photo doesn’t show nearly any detail for the spider, this photo gives a much better sense of scale and shows how hard it can be to see these spiders, let alone capture them.

I will never admit how many photos it took to get this particular image: the bee would fly off, the bee’s face would be too dark or too light, the focus wouldn’t be correct, etc. As it is, there are still elements that I wish I could fix; I dislike that the center is so out of focus, and I wish that the bee’s were just a little more in the sunlight. But I love that the image implies that the bees are circumnavigating the flower, an insect Juan Elcano if you will.

It’s amazing how the simple addition of the pointy tail on this insect makes it go from “cute, like a bee” to “terrifying and menacing”.  I love photos like this one; all the texture in the head and torso, the contrast in the vibrant flower and the insect body, and the hint of sunlight in the eye.

Any photographer knows that there are acceptable photos, there are good photos, and then there are photos that you feel lucky to capture; and you have to display all three types.  Bees rarely stay on a flower for longer than a few seconds, and this image took advantage of a flower’s askew petals; lining the two up wasn’t skill, it was luck.  But a good photographer knows that the more often you go out to take photos, the more likely you are to get lucky. 

Since we’re celebrating the July 4th holiday this week, I chose our flag as my subject for this week’s photos. While normally my photos are taken in the past and then I choose 7 images for the week from an event or along a theme, I’ve decided that this week’s photos should be taken daily and be relatively unique compositions.