Un "Bee" lievable

I've been trying to post my bee story for the longest time. I was being very particular with the images. For those of you who don't like massive amounts of insects...skip this post.

Picture this......................
I've had 3 hours of sleep 3 times zones away, been on an airplane for 8 hours and there's a storm coming in and I've got a "Tween" with attitude in tow.

My car, which I spent 45 minutes trying to start 50 miles away from home without AAA, is full of luggage from being out of town and products for a product shoot with a tight deadline.

I pull up to the curb in front of the house I live in and start unpacking the car. Suddenly the air above me begins to hum. A loud hum.

A "there's something happening" hum. Even sleep deprived and weary I would not have missed the hum.

My dad taught me to pay attention to things like the sky humming.

I looked up. The entire sky above my head is filled with thousands of insects ziz-zag-ing just above my head.....could have been a mosquito hatch, but I quickly identified them as bees.

My first thought was, "these could be killer bees". But I quickly dismissed this thought and concentrated on identifying them as honey bees, because we need those, and that would be good karma to have honey bees close by.

About my 6th trip to the car the bees settled on the side of the house and chimney, covering a fair amount of territory. If I hadn't been so bleary from travel I would have been a little more daring with my camera, but at this point, I was more concerned with the incoming rain and the couch than the bees.

An hour passed, a nagging thought sent me back outside to check on the chimney. The bees were gone. As fast as they had arrived, they had disappeared, or so I thought.

I found the bees had left the side of the house and gathered in the little tree in front of the house, right above where I park my car. They neatly formed a portable hive to protect the queen during the upcoming storm.
I've never been this close to this many bees in my life.
"Great," my mind commented, "now I don't have to worry about them swarming into the house thru the chimney. I'll just have to worry about the three feet between me, the bees, and the car."
For days they hung onto the tree just above where I park my car.......thousands of bees.


Each day thru the storm, I noted that they did not even move. No one in the neighborhood
even noticed them hanging in the tree. The portable hive was a little bigger than a
football. The cold and rain kept the bees tightly bound.When the weather allowed and my courage was strong, I ventured out with my camera and a long lens to snap some photographs. It was harder than I thought, they were only clustered when it was cold and stormy...not the ideal time to shoot photos of moving trees and bees.
When the sun came out, I was just a little too leery of being out there alone with thousands of bees.


The sun came out eventually and the bees did what I expected them to do......they moved the hive. What I didn't expect, was that they'd move the hive to the back yard and thrill me for another two weeks.

Got 'em

Fortune in the skies allowed for a perfect opportunity to get this last fish...or so I believe it will be. I'm watching each time I travel that road and have not seen any new displays from the roadside artist.

There's an up-close-and-personal view for those who are driving that road and don't stray with your eyes.

I know my dad will be proud of me catching all these fish.....my next mission will be to get him to follow my blog.

Fish Continued

Found some more fish by the road.
There's one more in the north bound lane that I still have to photograph.

These two caught me by surprise....like the others.

After cropping these I decided to crop a couple of the others for clarification. They're a little more interesting at 50MPH and with the late day sun. I will wait for a nice foggy morning or another late afternoon to photograph them again.

Backroad Art

My longest post yet..................


I've always love traveling the backroads. I find them soothing and adventurous. Give me the backroads to get to someplace, and that's the way I'll make time for. My dad would always have his eyes on the road and on the world around us when we drove together. I think of my dad each time I point out hawk and deer to my kids, just as he would, in the middle of a conversation, just to let us know there was s a whole world outside of ours.

That being said, I'm always watching the whole world. Last December (2008) I came across an unusual site outside my car window. I remember the first time I saw this, I thought it was junk.
It wasn't really noticeable at first.
But, traveling the same backroad every day, I was able to focus a little better each time I drove by.

It started with this. Whizzing by at 50 MPH you might not notice these guys.



Then one day I stopped and really looked at what I whizzed by every morning. The first piece was obvious.

I drove a little further to take a good look at the next piece. So now I'm giggling inside to think that there was someone out there who was obviously using roadside items to create art.


Was it a fluke? At the time I thought it was.


For weeks I drove that road. These little treasures were there to great me every ride south.












This piece I passed several times not being able to figure out what it was. For days I drove past this thinking, "what's it suppose to be?" I needed a northern perspective to see the hawk soring in the air. I moved it to make this photograph. The next day, it was moved back to it's original position......so now I knew that someone was out there watching these pieces.


So, who is this artist?
I knew it was not just some random junk pieced together.

One day they were all gone.

I regretted not stopping to photograph the mini cows that for so long just looked like metal placed on a cement ring.

Granted, there was some "construction" going on. In my mind, I assumed the company in charge of the "construction", took these pieces of art as junk and hauled them away. Inside I was sad to see the roadside art gone, especially the VCR guy....that one always made me smile.

That was December.

Months later I happened to be on the parallel freeway and noticed another piece of similar style of sculpture out of the corner of my eye. It was not safe to photograph it, but I knew it was the same artist. It was a giant praying mantis looking sculpture. I became hopeful more would show up.

Another road provided a placement for this beauty.

Did anyone else notice this?
Was I the only one who really picked up on this art display?
The pieces were placed in such random spots along busy roads that I wondered if they were there for the amusement of the passenger.





This was taken in April '09.

Since then, I've watched.
I've waited.
I'm not one to watch the TV, so if this is already a famous artist, I have not heard the news yet.

There were some cows in the late spring...I did not successfully photograph them to my liking.











Then nothing.
Till this week.

My daughter thinks I'm crazy stopping to photograph roadside art, but she's ten and knows nothing about life and stopping to smell the roses.

Last week I just happened to be on the same backroad and noticed these. I cracked up! They were there all along....just trying not to be seen.





My daughter was not impressed and decided to disassociate herself from me.


My Dad will love the fish along the road.
I'm enjoying the mystery of it all.

Mother Nature's Garden

I was in Mother Nature's garden again.
She's got all the good stuff in her garden...really big sticks and really big stones. "Granited", I mean, granted, she doesn't throw either of them too far, but they are suspiciously placed on the earth. Makes you wonder how they did get where they are.
I will have to work to make them look impressive with a camera.

Yosemite always grounds me. I've traveled to this place several times, especially these past few years.
Each time with a different agenda. This was not a photographic visit, but I did mark my eye with clicks for the next time.
There is such peace in Mother Nature's garden.

I'll be back again this year.

Gardens

My garden.

It's the place I go first at the beginning of the day (the roses love coffee grounds), and the first place I go after a day out on the road.

It's the place I go last most nights as I close down the house for the evening. I observe the night sky, relocate snails and slugs, wonder what the next day will bring.

It's the place I go for a dose of color and a piece of sanity. It's the place I go to sort out my thoughts.

It's the place I go for inspiration.


It's also the place I go to try out new ideas.
I never tire of photographing in my garden, or any garden, for that matter. Every time I've added a new tool to my camera bag I go out to the garden first to try it out.





Gardens are good backdrops for people pictures. The garden colors and textures compliment almost anything you put in it. Sometimes, I plan a photo based on a garden texture, sometimes it just happens that way.

I'm lucky to have beautiful gardens in the area I live in.

Java goodness

I was thinking about giving up coffee, but I'm not too sure I even like myself without my morning cup. This image was for a client, but I keep it in a folder I regularly view because it reminds me of coffee in the morning. Mmmm, one of my favorite things.

I took this photo in a mobile espresso truck. It pained me to pour out coffee beans lest they lose some flavor, but it made such a great image. Maybe I should view the image every day instead of visiting the coffee maker.