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Category Archives: Home Garden

Hummingbird flying in the searchlights

24 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Backyard Garden, bird, birds, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

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What looks like search lights in the background are actually my Fan Aloe plant I just purchased at the Sloat Garden Center in San Francisco by the Zoo. The Fan Aloe (Aloe plicatilis) plant will produce orange/red flowers in a couple of years that will be attractive to Hummingbirds. The natural lighting in the yard reflected off of the Fan Aloe plant is showing as white versus the real color of grey/green.

Shooting photographs in natural lighting is the best. If it is a sunny day, I aim to sit in my camouflage clothes in the yard between noon and 3 pm for the best lighting. My desire is to utilize the free sunshine light to highlight the creatures and plants in my photographs. I do not utilize software to brighten or sharpen my photos – thus my website and company name of “untouched”. The positioning of the sunlight to optimize the photograph is key. Shooting quickly and frequently is important to get a good picture. I love to do rapid fire shooting of my camera to increase the chances of getting that perfect picture. Photographing Hummingbirds is tricky as they move very fast, are unpredictable, and can fly in any direction. More than half the pictures I take of them are not usable as they are out of focus or they are out of the frame.

This hummingbird looks pretty classy with the curved left wing shooting to the side and up. It is also interesting how the wing is positioned to the back side position. He is coordinated to control the wings in 2 different positions. I could not be as coordinated to have my arms going in different directions.

Being a photographer makes me a little obsessive about lighting, not just for my photography, but for everything. I want our home to be well lighted for my 100 year old mother-in-law who is our light police. If she sees the light on in an empty room, she will command to turn off that light. I installed motion lights in our interior stairs and entry into our home. Our hallways also have motion lights. I have nightlights in our bathrooms. I make sure the lightbulbs are energy efficient. Having the proper lighting is important. My wife would walk around in the dark previous to our marriage. Now she is happy with all the bright lights. I can even turn on a light from my cellphone.

Let’s utilize bright natural light in our photography and keep the lights on at home!

Photographs remind us to keep the lights bright!

 

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Do the Bumblebee Jump!

22 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Sloat Garden Center, Spanish Lavender

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This smart Bumblebee is jumping from flower to flower getting her sweet nectar. Jumping can be tricky. No one wants to fall or miss the target. Fortunately, these flowers are close together making jumping easy for the bee. The bee jumps to food that is appealing. The bright flowers are alluring to the bee.

What do we jump to? Do we eye an interesting job for better position and money? Are we craving for a certain food like this bee is craving for nectar? Are we dreaming of moving to a bigger and more affordable home? Do we desire a different lifestyle that would be more fun?

Whatever it is we want to jump to, how can we accomplish the jump without falling and going “splat” in failure? Maybe one plan of strategy is following the example of this bumblebee. Take small jumps first. Create steps to reduce risk to get to your jumping goal.

It is desirable to want to go for it and take a giant leap to jump. Taking a giant leap means you have what it takes to make the jump. My wife worked in a chemistry lab environment. She wanted to jump to do computer programming. She took short jumps by taking a couple of courses in programming. Then she changed jobs to do scripting. Her next jump was to get into a programming job in her company where they trained her in the software application programming. She did not qualify initially for the jump. But she trained to become qualified.

If I had the ambition to run a marathon – (NOT) – I would need to run to build endurance. Due to my physical limitations, I know a leap to a marathon is not a wise jump for me. Our jumps need to be a realistic understanding of our limitations.

Consider what small jumps are possible to get to the desired “Giant” leap.

This pandemic has taught us that life is unpredictable. We need to redeem our time to make changes to improve life.

What will be your next jump?

Photos Teach us how to Jump!

 

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Bumblebee zipping with whipping wings!

18 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Sloat Garden Center, Spanish Lavender

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This Bumblebee was searching for some nice Spanish Lavender nectar from its flowers. They are relentless in their search for nectar. I shot these 3 photographs within about 3 seconds. It is amazing how fast the bee is able to whip his wings around as he is flying towards the flowers. Initially his wings are behind and within a second the wings are curving forward. I never imagined the curvature of the wing going forward until I started photographing the bees in action. The bottom of his legs resemble a pitchfork with the missing center teeth. It is pretty astonishing how fast bees fly.

Once upon a time, we zipped around town to eat at restaurants. We ate at restaurants to celebrate special occasions or just to take a break from cooking. For a whole year, we’ve been cooking and actually enjoying our meals. We’ve learned how to make healthy waffles out of oatmeal. We love our thick wild ahi tuna fish sandwiches. I asked my wife where she wants to go and eat after we all are vaccinated, and things feel safer. She was not sure where she wants to go. We realize restaurants need our business, and therefore prices will need to be higher. Our food bill is already high even though we try our best to save our pennies. But if we ate our wild tuna fish sandwich at a restaurant, it would be a lot more than what we paid for the entire piece of fish. We have gotten too accustomed to home cooking now.

It will be another adjustment for us to go back to eating at restaurants, since we are enjoying our own cooking. Zipping around the Bay Area will be a change, since we enjoy our current traffic free driving. We mostly just go to grocery stores. All our other shopping has been online. My wife has not cared much about buying clothing, since we do not go out. We do not miss all our former zipping travels. Zipping around our area will be different in our post pandemic future.

Observing the bee zip and whip around my garden reminds me one day hopefully later this year, we will be zipping and whipping around in freedom. Maybe we will go to In-N-Out for a hamburger, fries and milkshake which we have missed for a long time.

Photos remind what zipping around was once upon a time!

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Flight of the Bumblebee

15 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Sloat Garden Center, Spanish Lavender

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Here are a series of shots of a bumblebee’s sucking nectar and traveling around the flowers. I enjoy examining the bee’s positions in each shot. If this was a video, it would be harder to distinguish the different positions. So it is nice to take a pause to examine how they move.

This musical composition was written to depict the chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of the Bumblebee.

Wikipedia’s reference to The Flight of the Bumblebee

YouTube track of The Flight of the Bumblebee

It is pretty amazing how the wings flex in different angles and spread in interesting shapes. I would never have noticed the wing patterns of the bumblebee without these photographs. I used 1/8000 of a second shutter speed to try to freeze the action. The still frames display their remarkable wing span which is unexpected. Seeing the wings span larger for a small creature shows how they can fly in interesting patterns.

The chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of the Bumblebee is an analogy of our current times. We live in chaotic times with this pandemic. The rules keep changing of what we should do to keep safe. We are wondering when we qualify to get a vaccine. We were searching to see how as home caregivers to my mother-in-law, it would be possible to get vaccinated. Every vaccine site has different requirements or no requirements. Some of my aunties waited hours on the phone attempting to get an appointment. It is a little maddening trying to figure out how to get a vaccine.

We live in rapid change. It’s been one year since my wife was told in her office to pack up her laptop and work from home. She was concerned about focusing on work from home. But she learned to adapt and enjoy working from home. There is a lot of multi-tasking. But it helps to keep her sharp. Now the surroundings around her office are filled with tents and more homeless people. She’s afraid to return to the office due to the recent Asian assaults. She does not want to walk to the office from the bus. It has not been determined what management will decide about returning to the office. So much has changed during this one pandemic year. It boggles our minds thinking about all the events from the past year.

Crime is on the increase. In our neighborhood at the local grocery, someone tried to carjack a 75 year old woman in the parking lot. On Nextdoor.com, many neighbors regularly report about garage break-ins. It is alarming the number of racial attacks occurring. It is unnerving how we need to keep watching our backs when we go outside.

How do we deal with chaos and the constant change in our world? Do we look a little like this bee?

Maybe the clue is to go after the sweetness. The bee is flying crazy going after her sweet nectar.

In the midst of chaos, can we create sweetness in life?

Recently my aunt passed away unexpectedly. My wife and I went thru my old digital picture files and created a video for my aunt’s family and my relatives. Due to COVID-19, we did not gather for a funeral. So we thought this was a good way to grieve and also give sweetness to the family.

Give and create sweetness for others and yourself!

Photos teach us to change chaos into sweetness!

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Camouflage Hummingbird Rare Sighting in my yard

14 Sunday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Anna's Hummingbird, Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, bird, birds, Canon, Cuphea Vermillionaire, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird, Sloat Garden Center

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I photographed this Hummingbird last week as this was the only time he came in the yard. He flew in for a few seconds and hid behind the plants and flew out quickly. They are easily spooked by loud noises and or quick movements. This is why I try to be as quiet and still as possible. The problems with living in San Francisco, is the amount of noise in the neighborhood. It is not conducive to photograph Hummingbirds or other birds that are easily spooked.

This hummingbird is peeking thru the flowers in my yard. You can see his eye look out at me in the midst of the leaves and blossoms. It blends pretty well with the greenery. It is amazing how these creatures blend in with the scenery.

I miss seeing these hummingbirds in my yard. I am trying to figure out why they are missing. I am guessing it is too noisy lately, and they are not comfortable flying in to visit. Discouragement is not a good feeling. It causes confusion in pursuing goals. Wondering if my plans will be futile is my fear.

I was reminded life is constant change. This Pandemic life reminds me how events keep changing. So whatever is keeping the hummingbirds away will hopefully change. I am praying they will return and come out of hiding.

I can identify with this bird wanting to be hidden. I do love camouflage clothing. I wear camouflage hoping to welcome the hummingbirds into my garden. I want to blend in with the birds and do not want to scare them off. Being a good host means thinking about pleasing your guests. This has been my goal to provide sweet flowers for the hummingbirds. Recently the local news has publicized the need to be careful of bird feeders. They are getting dirty and causing harm to the birds.

SFGate Article about Dying Songbirds

I hope this is not the reason why I have not seen many hummingbirds in my garden.

Especially in our current world where Asians are being attacked, I want to be hidden in camouflage. I would fight back if I am attacked again. But I don’t want to fight or be attacked. I would prefer to be hidden and invisible.

Stay tuned to see when the hummingbirds will return to my garden.

Photos teach us hiding can be good to feel safe!

 

 

 

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Red Admiral Butterflies, New and fresh compared to tattered by life

13 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Butterflies, Butterfly, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Red Admiral

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Photographed 12/1/20

Photographed 3/2/21

We miss being with our friends and family during pre-pandemic times. I’m hoping we will have happy reunions later this year. In our Zoom meetings, we discuss possible plans for our reunion. We need to have a party in our house to make us tidy up our pandemic clutter. It will be nice when our people can return to visit us indoors.

It is also nice how this Red Admiral butterfly has been a good visitor over the past few months. See I shot a photograph in December 2020. I was glad to see this butterfly again in March. Unfortunately, this is a tattered butterfly now. See how the wing is damaged. The wing patterns match. So this must be the same butterfly?

Everyone and thing deteriorates over time. Things become broken. Home repair is a constant in life. During this pandemic time, people were seeking to repair and improve their homes to enjoy pandemic life. We love HGTV to watch how old broken homes are remodeled and fixed. It is interesting the determination whether the broken parts need to be discarded or can be restored or remade. Most of us enjoy seeing how the old can be made new again.

Facing brokenness is difficult to determine if a repair is appropriate. Can the brokenness be fixed? Or do we have to live with brokenness. We experienced a bad toilet problem with various problems. The plumber tried all sorts of things to repair. Finally, it was determined that it just had to be replaced. Too bad I do not know how to repair and patch this butterfly’s wing.

Often we do not want to face brokenness. Some do not want to change the old in their house as long as it functions in some way and will live with brokenness. In our life, do we recognize our brokenness? The first step to fix brokenness is to recognize what is broken. After recognition, we need to accept and move to possible solutions to fix emotional brokenness.

Hope during this pandemic time, we can not only repair our physical homes but also our personal emotional brokenness. I know I am praying and working on my personal brokenness. My garden and flying friends have helped me spend time praying in the outdoors. It is a slow process, but learning does not happen overnight.

Hope we can all accept the challenge to fix our brokenness.

Photos remind us about brokenness!

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Bumblebee having a drink in our Succulent Plant

12 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Succulent

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This bumblebee is having a great time in the center of our succulent plant. It rained here, and these drops remained on the plant. So the bee seems to be rotating around while drinking the drops of water.

Using my super telephoto zoom lens to zoom in is pretty fun. I love seeing the magnification of the rain drops. The translucency and the round drops are interesting on the leaves of the succulent.

The bee looks like it is rotating around the center of the succulent. It is probably trying to drink all the water collected in the succulent.

Sometimes do we ever feel like we are spinning around like this bee and not going anywhere? Spinning around makes us feel a little disoriented or dizzy. We may feel confused or have doubts about goals.

Even though this bee is rotating, she is also taking care of her thirst. She is enjoying her fresh rain water to replenish and give her energy to fly away.

This is the lesson for us. Maybe when we are spinning around, we just need to take a step back and stop spinning. We could just sit still and drink some water to replenish. If we stop spinning and take care of our physical needs, we can regroup to take our flight. Bumblebees are great teachers!

Photographs reflect great Bumblebee lessons!

 

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Losing it with Style

11 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Sloat Garden Center, Spanish Lavender

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As per my last post, apparently bumblebees lose wing parts due to old age. This is an interesting photograph with the bee proceeding to the flower as she loses 2 wing pieces. Those wing fragments have a nice curvature and style as they float away from the bee.

It is pretty amazing my discovery of the different bee poses and characteristics. This bee still looks more interesting with the 2 wing parts flying in the background. The bee looks stress free, even though her wing parts are detached and flying away.

During this pandemic, everyone has experienced stress. Perhaps for many of us, this past year could be the most stressful period we’ve faced. Not only is there the stress of getting COVID-19 or someone in our family getting infected, but our country has experienced racial and political unrest. There have been bad meteorological storms which caused losses to certain parts of the country. There is major economic consequences due to COVID-19. There is increased crime due to a variety of circumstances.

This pandemic stress has bothered me. But when I review my photographs, I forget about the stress and focus on the bees, birds and butterflies. I want to emulate their carefree attitude. In reality, our stressful feelings will not benefit our life. Stress causes health problems. Stress makes us feel uncomfortable and worried.

Looking at this photographs is a good reminder to recognize our problems and deal. But we do not need to worry or allow stress to control us. The carefree bee is not worried about a couple of missing wing parts. We just need to remember the Creator of the bee is also watching over me. I just need to work at what I am called to do.

I do occasionally lose it and get upset over things that are not really important. It is not a pretty sight. So I hope I can be reminded that I need to seek to care “less” because I have a God who is caring for me.

Let’s not lose it and make a bad scene. Let’s understand loss with less stress and care!

Photos teach about losing it with style!

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Oops! Missing Wing!

10 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, Bumblebee, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Sloat Garden Center, Spanish Lavender

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Part of her wing looks like it is shaking loose

Wow! Looks like part of her wing flew off

Collecting Nectar

This hungry Bumblebee was busy flying and landing on our new Spanish Lavender plant in our yard. In the prior pictures, the poor bee looks like part of her wing flew off. But it did not seem to be a big problem, since she secured herself on this flower and enjoyed a good sweet meal.

Photographing bees allows me to observe their behavior and characteristics. I never studied bees until now. Apparently old age happens to all creatures. Bumblebees also get old and wear out their wings over time. See the article below if you are interested in reading about wing wear in bumblebees.

Journal of Experimental Biology – What causes wing wear in foraging bumble bees?

Getting older is a part of all life. Life is constant change. Once upon a time, I could eat a lot of food, and burn the consumed calories. I could run and play sports. Now I don’t run or play sports due to minor aches and pains. Walking is the best exercise which hopefully will not cause injury. Hopefully, I will not be losing any limbs to prevent my mobility.

The loss of the wing piece did not slow down this bee. It looks like the bee enjoyed the flower nectar, and flew away.

This bee is teaching me about resilience. Determination to find a way to function and succeed when we are challenged with physical pain or losses is a challenge faced by all. I hope I can learn from this bee with the loss of part of a wing to accept my losses, but proceed to achieve my goals.

My sympathy to this bee for her wing loss. I applaud her flight to her next meal and to continue on her journey.

Photos teach resilience.

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Ruffled & True Colors

28 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by untouchedtcphotos in Back Yard Garden, Backyard Garden, birds, Canon, Garden, Home Garden, Hummingbird

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Singing and Tweeting

Cleaning

On the look out

Feathers are ruffled

The Hummingbirds have rarely been coming into our yard to drink the nectar of the Cuphea Vermillionaire flowers the past two weeks. They used to come every 20 minutes or so during the late morning and early afternoon. I have only seen them come in for a very quick visit and they appear skittish and fly away quickly.

I took these pictures of the Hummingbird up in a neighbor’s tree. I used a powerful zoom lens since he was far away. This bird’s ruffled feather reminds how many may look with sheltering in place. Our hair can be messy and tousled. We attend church via the internet, and no one has to see how we look. We do not need to dress up to go anywhere. We are comfortable in our sweats at home.

Do we feel like our feathers are ruffled? With all the recent Asian Assaults occurring, it is alarming and fearful. Not only do we have to watch our surroundings as we walk outside, but there are also home invasions while occupants are present. I usually am not as sensitive to outside noises. But more recently, normal outside noises are irritating. Individuals in my circle were sick with COVID-19. Fortunately, they recovered. Whenever we have big family gatherings again, there will be a couple of empty chairs of relatives who are now gone. These pandemic times are unnerving. So I feel like this bird.

What is amazing about this bird is the colors? Depending on how the bird bends his head and the reflecting light, the bright fuchsia shines on the top.  Even with the ruffled feathers, the emerald shimmering green body is beautiful. It is interesting how one moment the bird’s head looks black. Then when he points his beak up, he shows his true colors on his head and neck!

I need to learn from this bird. I need to look up where my help comes from the Lord. The light shows the pretty colors on the bird with the reflections. The Light reflection can also bring beauty and peace to each of us in the midst of a pandemic.

Can we reflect true colors even though we may be battling ruffled feelings?

Photos Reflect True Colors!

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