Bumblebee Moth - Take Three

The light was much better for photography as the clouds were moving in ahead of a storm. My settings are better. There was much less digital darkroom work on this photo. But I have pushed the limits of my camera. These situations are when I really wish I could afford a DSLR camera with multiple lenses. Dream on...


(To see a larger view, click on the photo. But please DO NOT DIRECT LINK to my photographs. If you want it, please save it to your own computer.)

Bumblebee Moth - Take Two

I made another try at the bumblebee moths today. The lighting is not the best, but the moths, bees, and butterflies show up after the flowerbed is in direct sunlight which gives lots of dark shadows. Be sure to click for the larger versions as a lot of detail is lost in the smaller pictures.


The even faster shutterspeed on the second photo stopped the wing action, but it was also very underexposed. It took a lot of "photoshopping" to get it to look this good. Lots more practice ahead. I prefer to do as little digital darkroom work as possible. I am also hoping for an overcast day with fewer dark shadows.


Please DO NOT DIRECT LINK to my photographs. If you want it, please save it to your own computer.)

Dreams and Alarms

I slept through the alarms this morning. Notice the plural. The regular alarms, two of them, were set for 5:30 and 5:35. The timer on the stove, which is annoying enough to wake the dead, was also set. I finally woke up with all three blaring away about 6:10.

I have both clocks across the room in different locations so I have to get up to turn them off. If they are beside the bed, I just turn them off without every waking up. And the stove timer means I have to walk from the bedroom to the kitchen to turn it off. Did I mention that I am a heavy sleeper?

Normally, this works after several rounds with the snooze alarm. But every once in a while my brain manages to incorporate the sounds of the alarms into a dream. Usually the dream involves searching high and low for whatever is making that awful noise. This morning's dream had me standing beside a traffic circle as the cars and trucks roared by...in my nightshirt. Wonder how I should interpret that?

I really am a morning person, but I tend to wake up naturally with the light. The sun takes a while to make it into the hollow, so it stays darker longer. I would have been awake by 6:30 anyway. But I wanted to get out early to do some yardwork while it was still cool. Needless to say, I was running a bit late this morning. At least, it wasn't a work day.

Bumblebee Moth

This afternoon I was checking my flowerbeds to see how much weeding and deadheading I need to do in the morning. There were a lot of bumblebees and butterflies on the zinnias. But there were also a couple of bumblebee moths among them.

Praying the batteries were not dead and the moths would still be there, I raced back to the house to get my camera. Both prayers were answered. Below is the best of the photos I was able to get this afternoon. They left before I hit on the right setting. The wings are a blur.


(To see a larger view, click on the photo. But please DO NOT DIRECT LINK to my photographs. If you want it, please save it to your own computer.)

I had read about these moths that hover over flowers as they feed, but I had never seen one until a couple of years ago. That time I saw a hummingbird moth which is larger and reddish in color. I thought it was a hummingbird until I saw the antennae.

I first saw bumblebee moths feeding on the azaleas this spring. Their bodies are bit longer than a bumblebee's and they are feathery-looking on the tail end. But without looking closely, you would think you were seeing more bees. Each time I have seen them, there were bumblebees feeding on nearby plants. You can see a better photograph which shows the wings at this site.

I plan to keep trying to get a better photograph if the moths keep showing up. I have more experience with aperture settings since I usually keep my camera on aperture priority. But these creatures move fast and never land. So I will be getting some much needed practice with shutter speeds.