Tag: Bee

Bumblebee on a Woodland Sunflower

This photograph is another from the large set of pictures I captured while on the guided summer wildflower walk of the wildflower meadows at Duke Farms. My wife Bhavna was with me, sharing in the glamour of the surroundings. Near the end of the guided tour, we entered a meadow that grows on either side of the Great Meadows Path near the bottom of Ginkgo Lane. The meadows, lined with Woodland sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus), made me wish for a similar meadow in my backyard. Bees filled the air with sound as they buzzed between the flowers, sipping nectar. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming desire to leave the group and submerge myself in the centre of this sea of wildflowers, surrounded by nature's uncomplicated magnificence.

Bee on Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus)
Bee on Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) · 2 September 2023 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

My Fuji X-T3 has a 26-megapixel sensor. The quality of the images amazed me, especially the sharpness retained even after significant cropping.

Bees are Not Bugs

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Bugs by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

This week’s theme is Bugs! Creepy, crawly, beautiful or inspiring, bring them all! Of course, no challenge would be in this list, unless you could take a very different view of it…

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Bugs by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

This week’s theme is Bugs! Creepy, crawly, beautiful or inspiring, bring them all! Of course, no challenge would be in this list, unless you could take a very different view of it…

The theme for Frank’s weekly photo challenge is “bugs”. The featured photo for this post is of a bee. Bees are not bugs.

As I mentioned in a comment when Frank published the post with the theme, all bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Well, that’s not entirely true. Computer software bugs are not insects but as everyone knows they are just as annoying.

True bugs are listed within the order called Hemiptera. Insects in this order are different from other insect orders, such as Hymenoptera (ants and bees), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), or Diptera (flies and mosquitoes). Ask A Biologist

I think the word bug is shorthand for “I think this thing is a nuisance“ or “I am shit-my-pants scared of this thing“. Some people like my wife see a cockroach and immediately fall apart like a four-year-old who just dropped an ice-cream cone to the floor. I think it’s learned behaviour. That same four-year-old is likely to be fearless when confronted with spiders, grasshoppers and daddy-long-legs. The insect is more at risk from unintentional death-by-curiosity in that scenario.

Some people are annoyed enough to swat every insect they encounter even if that insect is in the middle of the forest. I have a general rule. Unless I’m at threat of physical harm I leave the insect alone and I try my best to remove them (or myself) safely away from the area. My kids know that they are not allowed to kill insects that “re-occupy” our home.

I knew that it would be a challenge to find insects to photograph this weekend. It rained yesterday and this morning and I fully expected I would see nothing. But this morning while I was at the farmer’s market looking at the sunflowers I noticed this bee enjoying breakfast. Since this is a bee, not a bug, I technically failed the challenge. But there a few buyers who were bugging out over the buzzing.

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.