Day 232 – Fun with fill-flash: Apples, grapes, ants and bees!

Getting this right will mean when I’m shooting people I’ll get it right then too. All of these were shot at ISO 100 with exposure stopped down one or two stops and then fill flash at about 1/4 intensity. I used the LumiQuest 80-20 with the white reflector and no diffuser.

The apples are getting big! I should be able to start harvesting them soon. I hope my co-workers are in the mood for Granny Smiths!

I hope they like grapes too. The vine always gives us far more than we can eat ourselves.

This ant was working the nectar . . .

Out front the bees were going at it.

Symbiosis

I took these photos on June 6th and thought you might enjoy them. The musk thistles that I’ve been so fascinated with are also hives of insect activity. All kinds of bugs make their home within the plants’ spiny leaves. I thought these ants were using this thistle as an ant nursery, but they may have been harvesting honeydew from the aphids living there. Either way, I found the activity quite fascinating.

I am testing out the “gallery” feature of WordPress, but I have also posted the photos on SmugMug, in the likely event that WP flattens the photos’ color.