Saturday, July 4, 2020

Little fireworks








Yesterday we answered the first and second most common questions we receive here at clerkmanifesto. But what's the third most common question?

The third most common question is "What's your favorite bee?"

To be honest we don't get a lot of questions here at clerkmanifesto.



Anyway, thanks so much for asking. I like all bees equally. They're such great pollinators. Honey is delicious. And it's really fun how they fly around and land on flowers.



Just kidding. My favorite bee is the green bee!

Easily.

What's yours?












Really?




No, no, I'm very fond of them too. Just, I'm not a hundred percent sure they're actually, technically, a bee.

They're very little and sometimes they seem like little flies the way they group up.

But yeah. They're great.




Just, 

did you see the green bees?







So let's say for the sake of argument that you're out there taking pictures of some pretty flower, like this:















And then you zoom out and take another one.



















And you think, these are interesting flowers. 

And you're about to move on. 


And then a bee decides to drop in on your flower. Not just any bee. And bees are pretty great to begin with. 


But a green bee!


















So you say,


Let's take a closer look.














It kind of livens everything up, don't you think?




It's not just that these green bees, like other bees, have that black and yellow stripe thing on their bottom half. Or that they hang out with flowers, which makes for extremely lovely settings. Or that they have wings and fly. All of which is pretty amazing. Or that they pollinate, which means a lot to me not just because I like flowers, but also because I... eat... food.

I eat food.

I want to live.

I know other people that I want to live too.

Like you!

And the green bees help with this!

But also, and this is uniquely important, 

they are green.


Green!


And not just any green. 

Metallic green!



Check this out:













And then look at those chubby legs, and the way they're all covered with pollen.

And the great thing is that we actually can look! These bees hang around for a long time. They aren't particularly shy. And they take their time, going about their... stuff.

Do you remember how maybe I've mentioned that with all my close up photography most of my pictures come out blurry? Well they do. But these friendly bees let me take so many pictures of them that a few of them inevitably turn out okay. This is great. I can even try the nearly impossible super zooming in and have a few turn out. 

Look at all the pollen stuck to the little bee hairs here:












In the above picture the pollen is a pretty evident dusting all over the bee. But one thing I love with the green bee is how the pollen gets so thick you can hardly tell where the pollen leaves off and the bee begins.

Or, is it, rather, where the bee leaves off and the pollen begins.


Keep that one in mind with the last picture.

You see, as I was taking all these pictures of the green bee, in a neighbor's flower bed, I started thinking about writing a blog post about this bee. And I decided I wanted a good portrait picture of him. But bees can be very different than you or I. I mean their faces are... different. And so are their eyes.

So I tried a lot of different approaches.

In the end this one was the best. It's more of a candid sort of portrait than a formal one.



It looks like he's smiling.

















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