I would like to send out a cosmic thank you to Lorna, the landlord for my rental house. She has a garden just ten feet outside my front door. I call it Lorna's Garden. I have watched the garden grow and change over the past few years. The garden is truly a labor of love for her. She comes once a week for 1 to 2 hours to work in the garden. Her garden has supplied about 80% of my flower pictures so far. Thank you Lorna!
I have watched pink tulips with yellow tips fade into white and dusty lavender. I have seen completely yellow tulips turn red streaked, much like a ripe peach. I have seen angels, stars and galaxies in flowers. Watching the flowers this Spring has been a spiritual journey more than a photographic one. I have been sitting on cold wet cement, squatting in the mud and hanging my head upside down all Spring in the garden. I have become such a fixture in Lorna's Garden, that a normally shy squirrel walked up to my foot. It walked, not ran to me. I looked at it and said out loud, "What are you doing?" The squirrel looked up at me and just walked away. It only started to run when I walked out of the garden and around the hedge to find it.
I've figured for years there was a small bumble bee nest near the corner of Lorna's garden that meets the neighbor's fence line. Perhaps, it is on the neighbor's side. I'm not familiar with bumble bee habits, but there is always a bumble that just hangs out there, like a guard or sentinel. About two weeks ago, the first bumble bee of the season showed up. I was taking pictures of the tulips in that corner and a bumble bee came to check me out, much to my dismay. I stayed still and it flew on one side of me, then the other. I decided to ignore it and bent down to take more pictures. The bumble went back to his post at the corner. Then last week, when a bumble bee came up to me, I decided to watch it more closely. It flew around the corner of the garden, then back to its post. What makes me think that it is a sentinel, is that it constantly hovers at the fence line and faces the fence. It will fly up and around, but mostly hovers in one spot. I decided to take pictures of the bumble bee, though they turned out blurry. At first my pics were taken from chest height. Then, I raised the camera to my head level. The bumble rose to my head height and turned to face me! I was fascinated and scared all at the same time. A bumble bee facing off with you looks incredibly mean! I clicked a picture then decided to not find out how far I could go with the bumble. I slowly put down the camera and slowly bent down to the flowers. The bumble turned aside and went back to his post. Wfew!
Not only has May been a super busy month for me, but also, I now have over a thousand pictures to sort through. While I know I should take the time to read the manual for my Canon Elph, I like to just play with it instead. Through happy accidents, I have discovered there is a nighttime setting on the camera, which usually makes colors a little richer, even in the daylight. There is a wide angle setting which was fun to play with too. The Canon Elph has taught me patience because there is no manual focus. In the macro mode, the camera will focus on what it wants, not what I would like. And, then there is no guarantee that anything will be in focus. I really can't see the images on the camera screen clearly, especially in direct sunlight. There is a lot of editing to do on the computer. About one in ten shots come out the way I want. I have learned a few tricks, though. When the camera will absolutely not focus any where near what I want, I turn the camera to another object in the distance, then back to my subject. This makes the camera refocus, and it works for me sometimes. Another trick I use is to put my hand next to the subject, like a tiny flower, so the camera can read the flower, and not the ground. Once the camera finally focuses on the flower, I remove my hand and take the picture.
I am very excited to display my flower pictures, though there is much work to do first. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Spring!