Bue Fly

I finally got a clear closeup of a blue fly. It looks like it's made of plastic in the morning light. They are very nervous and the slightest movement makes them take flight. I had to stand in the same place, ready to snap, for a long time before a blue fly landed on a blossom within range (2 to 3 inches from my lens). Besides their timidness, I had additional problems with the honey bees. 

Honey bees remind me of Guildenstern, because they kept running into and blocking the flies and spiders I was patiently waiting to photograph. One of the blue flies landed in a perfect position, but just as I focused on it, a honey bee flew into it and the blue fly took off. Arrrgh! The same thing happened with the wasp-like bee, a beautiful green fly and a small orange and black butterfly. I don't know if the honey bees are purposely performing kamikaze maneuvers on the other insects to get into the photos, or they are just the insensitive clods of the pollenating insect world.

Laurie spied a tiny walking stick while cutting dead canes off the roses this morning, and called me over to photograph it. The walking stick was a real challenge because it was about an inch long and so slight that I couldn't get my lens to see it. I finally got it using manual focus, but it kept moving, so I couldn't get a super sharp image with my lens hitting the cane above the walking stick.

Then there was this tiny spider on a apple blossom in perfect light, I just focused on it when a honey bee kamikazed it, causing it to leap to a branch. The spider ran down the branch and paused just long enough for me to get a photo of it. I had my head and camera in between the branches to get the photo, and the silly honey bees were crawling around on my ears and in my hair. I love honey bees, but, before today, I never realized how pesky they are.

The panorama of the Sandias was taken using the macro lens I've been photographing the insects with. I thought the sunset would be good tonight, but I got involved in cooking dinner, which will also be lunches next week, and missed it. Oh well. Last night's sunset was pretty good.

Even though we fight the dandelions, they are great subjects, and I couldn't resist photographing one this morning.