July Image of the Month

It's been a great month, photographically speaking. I think spending part of most days at a desk buried in SQL had tended to focus my mind on photography when I've got the camera in hand. Plus I've had some great light, so I'm struggling with my choice of image of the month.

I'm down to 41 finalists, and I've been going back and forth, forth and back, in a major league dither. The white peony was in it's prime, and I surprised myself with a black and white shot of it. The red peony conspired with the bees to capture my camera eye. The pink peonies are getting into the game as well. The lilies were getting started, and one of the home grown dahlias got into the action. The bees were busy as always, and after a zillion shots I've got some great close ups photos of them. I'm expecting the bee's agent to send me a bill for modelling services. A couple ants posed, as did a heron, some dragonflies, and of course, Curtis. There was an amazing cloudscape one evening and a sunset with a buddy another evening. Just to round things out, there's a lovely river semi-abstract.

Here's a screen shot of the choices. Most have been on the blog, but not all. Stay tuned for a special blog with all the bee shots in one place. Some of you are going to be giddy with excitement, and will have to take calming breaths.

Honourable mention
I don't do honourable mentions very often, but I keep coming back to this one. I dropped it into black and white just as an experiment since the background was kind of yucky. I almost had heart palpitations at how it looked! This was on Instagram, and garnered only a few likes. Perhaps more of my blog readers will like it. Maybe you have to see the high res version on a big screen to appreciate the subtle shades of white and textures of the petals.

Second Runner Up
One of our new clematis trying to break into the big leagues. The soft light, the delicate lilac shades, the water drops, the crispness of the centre whatever they are, swoon!

First Runner up
I spent a bit of time watching this ant working it's way across the petals. Then I spritzed it a bit to touch up the dew drops, and it churned on through. Then just as I was getting ready to shoot, it came to this chasm, hesitated, and waved it's antennae. Click! Then it was across and out of sight. The white peony is a favourite of mine, and having the ants just adds to the drama.

Image of the Month
How many of you have ever seen a bee six pack? I certainly hadn't. But what gets me about this macro shot is how much of it is in focus. All the tiny spiky plant bits look great on my big screen, and the detail in the wings. Plus that purple!