Tag Archives: bee

Reverse Image Search

May 2, 2021Lake Louisa State Parkant, bee, Flowers, fly, wildflowersEd Rosack

Reverse Image Search is a tool that tries to find images that match a sample you provide. It searches based on image content, not based on a description in words. It has a lot of applications, but I mostly use it to help identify things in photos.

Busy Wildflower: Bee, fly, and ant on Lantana Camara

Lynn and I spent a few days at Lake Louisa State Park recently. There were many wildflowers in bloom and I wanted to share some with you. I’m not at all knowledgable about plants and flowers so I used Google’s image search capability to help me ID them (https://images.google.com).

Wand Mullein

You can find a huge number of phone apps, guide books and websites about wildflowers. But there are so many different wildflower species that it’s just about impossible for any one reference to be complete. The ones I’ve tried have been frustrating, which is why I use reverse image search when I want to ID a plant or flower.

Passion Flower

I upload a small version of the photo, and browse the returned images and captions for clues to a preliminary ID. When I think I have a match, I try to confirm it with something like the University of South Florida plant atlas: https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Default.aspx

Prickly Pear

Sometimes I’m pretty confident I’ve got it right, sometimes I’m completely lost (like the header image – no clue), and most times (like the last photo) I’m at least a little uncertain. But it’s fun to try!

Edit: The header image is a Rosary Pea (Abrus precatorius L.). Thank you Wally Jones!

~~Purple Prairie Clover(?)~~Sensitive Briar

I enjoy photographing wildflowers and I’d like to identify them when I do. But it’s not easy and I’m definitely not an expert. If you are, please forgive my beginner level advice. Do you have any better tips?

You can view my blog posts about Lake Louisa at this link: https://edrosack.com/category/photo-ops-in-florida/lake-louisa-state-park/ and I’ve collected photos from there in this album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157644335735632

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Take care of yourselves and each other. And when you can – photograph a flower and try a reverse image search!

Mother Nature’s rewards

March 10, 2019INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, St. Johns Riverbee, black and white, boat, BPWD, Common Yellowthroat, fishing, infrared, landscape, Northern Shoveler, Red-breasted Merganser, sunrise, Thistle, Wilson's SnipeEd Rosack

I headed out toward Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with KM and KK last Friday.

We stopped by the boat ramp at the St. Johns River on US 50 for sunrise. There weren’t many clouds, so my hopes for color weren’t too high. But there was a nice pop as the sun came over the horizon and I zoomed in to capture this moment:

St. Johns Sunrise – a peaceful pasture

I had my infrared modified camera in the car. When I saw these fishermen leaving, I pulled it out and hurried over to make an image. Despite rushing, I like the way it turned out. The clarity that IR brings to this image is nice, and the wake and boat reflection are pretty too. I’m glad I had the camera all setup to go before I grabbed it!

Early departure – Monochrome, infrared

KM is an ace at spotting birds and he called out this Merganser. When I got home, I thought at first it might be a Common Merganser – which I’ve never seen before. But it turns out their range doesn’t include Florida. So this was a Red-breasted – which I have seen, although infrequently.

Red-breasted Merganser

There are a large number of Northern Shovelers around Black Point Wildlife drive. Of course they were mostly far away and when they were close, they seemed to always face in the wrong direction. But patience paid off when this male eventually swam slowly in front of us in good light and dragged his very handsome reflection with him.

Male Northern Shoveler

Thistle plants are also all over on Black Point – this one came with a Bee on it. I made a four image panorama to record the whole subject with higher magnification and resolution. Sometimes I run into issues stitching these together. But this one turned out well:

Thistle and Bee

KK called out this Snipe in the mangroves along the canal and we of course stopped to photograph it. The light was poor, with the sun behind it. When I first looked at my photo on the computer, it was very washed out. I added some dehaze in Lightroom and was pleased with the result.

Wilson’s Snipe

Smaller birds were flitting around near the rest stop on Black Point. I usually find these hard to photograph. The light is bad way back in the reeds and they move quickly. It’s tough to focus on them through all the obstructions. I was shooting toward the sun for this image too and it didn’t look good at first on my computer. Thankfully it’s in focus and there’s a lot of latitude for processing with a RAW format file. I used local adjustments with the radial filter in Lightroom to boost the exposure and visible detail on the bird.

Common Yellowthroat

When we left on this trip, I had no idea what we’d see and photograph. There are no guarantees. I’ve learned though, that Mother Nature usually rewards us when we pay attention to her – in this case with a nice sunrise and several birds that I rarely see. And a little post processing rewarded me with improved photos.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

In the Back Garden…

July 23, 2017INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSbee, bird, FlowersEd Rosack

Lynn’s been busy in our back garden and suddenly it’s even more photogenic. Lots of new plantings / flowers and they’ve attracted some interesting visitors. I’ve been keeping a camera at the ready so I can go out quickly and see what’s happening.

The Bird of Paradise plants are a new treat. They’re blooming and I couldn’t resist making some photos.

Bird of Paradise (partial)

This blue bit is the stamen – I like this composition more than one I made of the entire flower. I left a small piece of the rest of the bloom in the bottom left of the frame for context.

Bees and Butterflies seem as happy with the new garden as I am.

Bumblebee in flight (BIF) (Olympus E-M1 II Pro Capture mode)

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

I briefly spotted some Ruby-throated Hummingbirds too. But in my excitement to let Lynn know, I let go of the screen door too quickly and the noise was enough to drive them off. I’ll be more careful next time and hopefully get some photos of them as well.

I’m very lucky that Lynn has set up such nice photo ops for me! I can’t wait to see what else she arranges in front of my lens.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Flowers and Flyers

August 28, 2016Virginiabee, bird, black and white, Butterfly, Flowers, shenandoah, travel, virginiaEd Rosack

I hope you don’t mind a few more photos from Virginia. The wildflowers and butterflies were beautiful, and the birds varied from what we normally see in Central Florida.

Chicory bud wildflower. Thanks Charlotte Norton for identifying this for me!

There were butterflies everywhere, probably because wildflowers were everywhere. We had a marvelous little meadow under the balcony behind our room. It was fun and relaxing to sit there and watch all the activity.

Swallowtail

Bees and birds were busy too.

Wildflower and Bee B&W

We stood in line for the dining room at the lodge one night and the woman in front of us was carrying a large DSLR camera and lens. She lived close by and had come up to photograph butterflies in Big Meadows. I said we were enjoying them too, and then we started talking about birds. I was all excited about the Indigo Buntings and American Goldfinches we’d sighted, since we don’t often see them in Florida. She didn’t seem to care about such common birds – and was much more interested in getting to Florida to see some Spoonbills. To each their own!

Eastern Towhee (life bird!) – Thanks Kevin McKinney for the bird ID help!

And one more image to wrap up. I made all the photos in this post with a micro four-thirds camera and 100 – 400 mm lens (200 – 800 mm equivalent). I found it very useful for close up photography and even though I had a macro lens with me, I never used it.

Wildflower 3

You can see larger versions of the photos above by clicking on them and more photos from Shenandoah in this album on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Central Florida Zoo (Sanford)

May 25, 2013Central Florida Zoo, INSIDE FLORIDA, Sanfordbee, birds, Flowers, macaw, Otter, Snake, sunriseEd Rosack

I hadn’t been to the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, Florida since early 2007 and Tom M. had some new gear he wanted to try – so we decided to visit this week. Here’s a few photos I made along with some photo hints.

The River Otter exhibit was fun. If you’re patient and the otter’s in the mood, you can make a nice image of it swimming. Up your ISO to get a fast shutter speed and get close to the glass to block reflections. Then press the button right before “the moment”.

One of our Photography Interest Group members, Jeff S. has a write-up about the zoo on his blog: http://www.firefallphotography.com/central-florida-zoo/. There’s some good info and photos there – well worth a read.

Macaw – Many zoos have these very photogenic birds around. They’re good posers!

Photography at this zoo can be challenging. Many of the animals are behind glass or wire mesh fences, and far away or in bad light. You’ll need to look for situations where you have a clear view of the animals and if you’re patient they’ll often come closer. You can also try the standard techniques i.e. Use wide open apertures to blur the fencing; Hold your lens close to the glass or use your hands to block reflections; etc.

Snake eyes – Albino Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. The “herpetarium” is dark. I didn’t bring a flash, but If I had, I might have tried using it (held out to the side to avoid reflections). The snakes don’t normally move fast – in this case I braced my camera so I could use a slow shutter speed (I also didn’t bring a tripod).

Busy Bee – There are a lot of pretty plantings and flowers at the zoo. I made this photo in the Butterfly Garden area.

And one last photo – we went by the marina in Sanford before going to breakfast and then the zoo. It’s a nice place for sunrise.

I’m glad we got up early

As usual, you can click on these photos to go to Flickr, where you can see larger versions. You can also see a few more photos from the Central Florida Zoo in this set on Flickr.

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.

Tag Archives: bee

Reverse Image Search

Mother Nature’s rewards

In the Back Garden…

Flowers and Flyers

Central Florida Zoo (Sanford)