frog and butterfly

I joined the CAZBA last year with hopes of finding and photographing native butterflies and the first thing I learned is how difficult it is! Spotting them is the first hurtle. The largest, like Swallowtails for instance, are pretty easy but there are tiny (emphasis on TINY!) butterflies that are still a challenge for me. The experts follow the slightest movement and yesterday, the reward was a tiny (3/4ths inch) Orange Skipperling.

Yesterday’s outing was to Rackensack Canyon. The butterflies were few but seeing Canyon Tree Frogs made up for it! Click the photo for a short slideshow of my favorite images from yesterday. Identifications are under the photos.

Click Photo for Slideshow

pollen in your eye?

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Why is this bee completely covered in pollen while others carry theirs in neat little bundles on their legs? That’s what I was wondering as I was taking this guy’s photo. So, I googled and found the following answer:

“Honeybees are covered with tiny hairs all over their body, even their eyes. Pollen sticks to these hairs as the bee crawls around on a bloom . The pollen particles are moistened with nectar and are then brushed down to baskets on the hind legs. The bee will collect its weight in pollen”.

Bee gathering pollen of Brittlebush bloom
bee on brittlebush

Pretty cool, huh? I love learning something new. Now I want to get a photo of a bee grooming! For other interesting bee facts, check out Buzzzonin.com

oooopen wide!

I absolutely love the beautiful and artsy quality of shallow depth of field (DOF) that results from shooting wide open. This is especially true of lenses that can open up to f/2.8 or wider . Don’t know what DOF means? Click here

Here are two shots of Lacepod at different apertures.

Canon 100mm Macro at f/13
f/13

Canon 100mm Macro at f/2.8
f/2.8

FYI to compact camera users: Although most compact cameras have wider apertures available (like f2.8), it will not give the same results as an SLR. This is because the lenses of compact cameras have very short focal lengths which means their aperture openings are significantly smaller than on an SLR. Small aperture openings result in sharper images so images are going to have much more depth of field (more in focus) than the SLR equivalent.

an endless playground

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For me, the highlight of our most recent Joshua Tree National Park visit was an adventurous hike through one of the many, many canyons there. It’s no big deal for a bouldering guy like Chris but it was a little challenging for me. Probably a little dangerous too since I was carrying a camera or two but hey…..I wanted proof showing I actually did it! I apologize for the shakiness but it’s tough shooting while climbing one handed 🙂
(Click Here for info on Camping)

canyon hike joshua tree
Hiking aCanyon at Joshua Tree National Park (click link for video)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft-1fh4lr38

Conservation Photography