Coneflowers (or Echinacea as they also known) are another flower to enjoy photographing. Medicinal properties aside, (my go to when I’m feeling a bug coming on), it’s not just the flowers but the bees that seem to gravitate towards them – especially bumble bees.
Last season in exploring the neighborhood for photos ops I did not come across any. However, the patch of Black-Eyed Susans I came across was pretty awesome – so no complaints.
Now living in a different part of town, in my wanderings, I came across a little pollinator garden. It wasn’t much but it did come with a scattering of Coneflower plants. Happy, happy! So this little post is dedicated to this new garden discovery and the photos that came of it after a few trips.
As The Coneflowers Were Just Opening
There is something to be said about the opportunity to observe a flower’s process of opening. And Coneflowers are pretty cool as they are just beginning to open. Not to mention, this little garden provided a nice back-drop of soft colors blending into the background in the photos.
I love the soft watercolor appearance courtesy of Nature. Not filters required although having a camera lens that creates these types of photos is a perk!
Given how much AI has taken over the photography world, it can be difficult to determine what’s what. Real or AI manipulated?
However, NONE of my photos are AI generated. It’s just the flower world and Nature doing its thing and I intend to keep it that way!
So while not all the flowers were at their peak, I still enjoyed the moments with my camera. It’s also interesting to see how flat the flowers are in their initial stages before the cone develops. I had not paid much attention to that in the past, but here was an opportunity to do so.
The one close-up photo I was able to capture became a favorite as you can really see all the colors and detail in the early stages of the cone. The greens and oranges against the soft purple petals. Very pretty.
There was even a little hummingbird who was keeping a watchful eye. The little fella kind of caught me off guard and I’m surprised I was even able to get this shot!
Leave it to the Bees
Coneflowers and bees are a match for sure. It took a few trips to capture these moments at the little pollinator garden. But it was totally worth the efforts! Initially it was the honey bees taking center stage. But then the bumble bees showed up and it was fascinating to observe them circling the cone as they went about their pollen gathering.
Sometimes you capture an unexpected shot and this was definitely one of those moments. I call this photo “the getaway”.
A little honey bee was gathering pollen on the lower flower. Initially the bumble bee was on the upper flower and thought it would be a cool shot. A “two-fer” if you will. But Nature can be very unpredictable!
Just as I thought I had things in place to capture the moment, the bumble bee suddenly flew off – as bees often do. Initially I was bummed. But then when I got home and looked at the photo on the computer and saw the bee on its getaway, I would not have been able to plan that photo if I tried!
Nature may not always behave as we’d like. But it’s those unplanned moments that can be so cool 🙂