Sunday, July 20, 2008

138:365 Bumble-ing along - Updated

Philippe: The cat likes sunspots, and I'm an opportunist.. it's a good combination

















Anna: Today the girls and I went to the museum for a most excellent presentation (Dragons and Cryptozoology by Loren Coleman). As we were crossing the grounds back to the car, I stopped under a blooming linden tree to see what sort of incests I might be able to photograph. The tree was planted in a large raised bed surrounded by a low concrete wall. Low enough that, even with my knees, I could step onto it without much assistance. As I was climbing onto the wall to get a closer look at the linden tree, I noticed a bumble bee placidly walking along. I promptly got back down and tried getting some photos of the bee as it kept ambling towards me.

It was moving a bit too fast for me to get good photos, but I noticed another rather lethargic bumble bee in a flowering bush. So I tucked in behind a bench, with my knees braced on the concrete and my butt braced on the bench, maneuvering to get a good angle of this second bee. The girls promptly started telling me that the first bee had turned around and was heading back towards me, and that I might want to move.

I acknowledged them kept clicking away.

Next, they were telling me it was heading for my knee.

Sure thing, I said, still clicking away.

Then they were telling me it was *on* my knee and climbing.

Okay, so now I finally move. The bee was heading up at a good clip and was soon climbing my shirt. My elder daughter tried to persuade it to head downwards again, or even fly off, but no such luck. In trying to move it (without me getting stung, though there didn't seem to be much danger of that), the bee ended up on my camera strap.

Off went the camera, and we spent the next while trying to convince the bee that the flowering bush was a really nice place to go. Still no luck.

At which point I figured, what the heck. Since it was there anyways, I started taking pictures.

I liked this one the best.

We did eventually get the bee off the strap. It never did try to fly.

4 comments:

Gawdess said...

I like the gleam in the cat's eyes and the yellow fuzz on the bee!

AphotoAday said...

You certainly live a life of danger...

One of my favorite things to do when I was a little kid was catch bees in a quart jar with holes punched in the lid, but if I didn't let them go in time they would keel over and die, and then I would feel bad for a while, and perhaps get yelled at by my parents -- but that never seemed to stop me from trying it over and over...   I seldom got stung, but those bees were pretty mad when I let them go...   I've since learned how to respect all forms of life, but it took me a while to catch on...

Love your cat, by the way...   I need to get some new photos of my Kitty...   She is the love of my life and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual...

Anna said...

*L* I used to do that with fireflies. I'd fry ants with a magnifying glass, too. Now I take pictures of them. The things we did when we were kids!

Glad you like that cat. Funny thing is, both Philippe and I are dog people, but it just hasn't worked out to get one. So we have the cat, and she's convinced us that maybe being a cat person is kind of fun, too. ;-)

A.

smilnsigh said...

Eeeeeeeek! What we do for our photography!!!

Guess your bee, beats my 'skinned' elbow. >,-)

No, on second thought, it doesn't. 'Cause that dang skinned elbow I got, backing up for a good shot, took 2 whole weeks to fully heal. Nope, I still claim the "Worst Photography Injury" Award. lol...

Miss Mari-Nanci
Smilnsigh
Photos-City-Mine
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