Floral Fantasy

Just wanted to post a few words about Floral Fantasy. It often seems when I set my schedule for a photo shoot the most unusual events occur and I never arrive home with what I expected on my memory card. On one of the few remaining hot days of the summer last week and with not much time, I set off to photograph the neighbors blood red foxgloves. Every morning I admire these foxgloves as my eager beagle runs me through the neighborhood on my early morning daily walk. So last week I grabbed the Nikon and set off to do a few macro shots. What I did not expect to find upon my arrival of the neighbors foxgloves however, was a half dozen or so yellow jackets engaged in what seemed to be a United Nations gathering of bee colonies. I stood there in amazement never expecting to have my afternoon plans altered by several of mother nature's most annoying creatures.

Now many photographers actually would see this as an excellent opportunity for a few amazing macro photos; you know those photos where the insect legs are so large and hairy they look like they could use a good shave, or the sort of macro photo where the eyes protrude as if they are giant marbles, the kind that are so large and scary they resemble a UFO. Well, let me just say I am not one of those photographers. Given that one must get within two to three inches of their subject to take a good macro shot, I just can not bring myself to cozy up with my Nikon reversal macro ring two to three inches from an afternoon gathering of yellow jackets.

This brings me to today's photo post Floral Fantasy. After doing the doge and weave dance with the yellow jackets who were not happy enough to only annoy me with their afternoon infestation of my photoing foxgloves, I moved to photo a few autumn colored inpatients; the problem was my new friends the bees moved to the liriope, which of course were next to the inpatients. This left me, dare I say rather impatient! So what was left ~ nothing but the marigolds, several generic leaves and an unidentifiable pink flower, at least it was an unidentifiable pink flower to me.

Not wanting to end my day in frustration and despair, I decided to snap a triple exposure of the three non bee visited perennials, the marigold, one of the many green leaves and the unidentifiable pink flower. The triple exposure of the three is the base of this photo. I then did an overlay with the help of Picasa and the computer and the top photo is a single exposure of the pink flower.

Maybe if someone is reading they might want to identify the unidentifiable pink flower and the bees ~ well they are resting peacefully this evening discussing where to follow me next.