Honey Bee Wrapping up the Summer Harvest

Honey Bee Wrapping up the Summer Harvest on the Rails to Trails at Black Creek Park

Black Creek Park :: Soaking up the Early Morning Sun

This stand of trees is eagerly soaking up some early morning sunlight at the outset of a hazy summer day. With Black Creek at their feet and sunshine streaming through their leaves, it seems like there is little more a tree could ask for. Perhaps a songbird or two, rather than the mimicking squawk of a mockingbird.

Copse of Trees at Black Creek Park, Fultondale, Alabama

Bee Pollinating a Purple Coneflower

On a stifling summer afternoon, which invites only lethargy, the bees were regarding their stewardly duty of pollinating the local flora. With purple coneflowers and knockout roses in abundance, there was plenty for nature's helpmates to tend to.

Bee Pollinating a Purple Coneflower :: Canon Rebel T2i, Tokina AT-X 35mm f/2.8 Macro, f/8 @ 1/500s, ISO 400

Since getting this Tokina 35mm Macro lens in December, I've really enjoyed it. But one thing makes me anxious, the very close working distance required to take photos like this one, usually less that two inches. And between my unsteady hand, the slightly shifting breeze, and the movement of the bees, it requires taking dozens of photos to get one with just the right critical focus. Which requires spending a lot of time in close proximity to critters with stingers. They've been gracious thus far, but I imagine I'll eventually get stung, and I do hate being stung. I think my next lens purchase needs to be the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens.

A Blog of My Favorite Smells

There are a couple of things that immediately strike me as being my favorite smells, so here they are in no particular order:

Oranges. You know when you're peeling an orange and that little bit of spray shoots up off the orange and just fills the air with that perfectly delightful smell, well I love that. And then that smell is on your hands for the next few hours.

Summer Rain. Just before it rains in the summer, the air is filled with a particular scent. I don't know how to describe it. Now what's even better about the summer rain depicted in the photo below is that it's mixed with the tangy, salt air of the ocean.

Warm Thoughts for a Cold Weekend

You know how I like to remind myself that there will again be warm days in the future? I think about the several days that Anna and I spent at Point Clear, Alabama on the Mobile Bay last summer. And that just about does the trick...until I step out to run and my ears hurt and eyes water from the cold.

Point Clear, Alabama :: Canon AE-1 with Kodak Gold 200

Rolling Hills on a Misty Summer Morning

Misty Morning in Fultondale, Alabama