Black-Crowned Night Heron And Shadow

A black-crowned night heron poses with its shadow in golden morning light…

Priya Ghose Photography

A distinct shadow in profile accompanies this black-crowned night heron, as it sits on a rock at dawn near Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, California. The morning light glows warmly on its soft plumage and bright red eye, while it waits for a tasty meal of fish or frogs or some delectable crustacean.

I’ll be honest, we didn’t visit Santa Barbara or get up before dawn to take photographs of black-crowned night herons. While photographing Stearns Wharf and the surrounding beach at first light was fun, somehow we got distracted by the variety of birds hunting and feeding at this same time of day. Before we knew it, we had begun stalking egrets and ducks, great blue herons and black-crowned night herons. Silly as it sounds, we named them as we followed them around.

“Oh! Here comes the Baron von Heron” (The great blue heron).

“Shoot…I just missed a shot…

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The Goose Chase

Childhood memories, like chasing a goose…

Priya Ghose Photography

Ah, the simple pleasures of childhood. A young boy chases a large white goose at the park, their steps in synch as they run down to the lake…

I discovered that I love photographing people quite by accident. I brought a new lens to test at a local park which has the trail-head for one of my favorite walking paths, and after my walk I took out my camera and looked for something to shoot. People, geese, ducks, dogs, and egrets were everywhere. I’d already established that I enjoy photographing animals, so I was drawn to the people.

Kids of all ages crawled, toddled, and ran, and families played games on the grass. The usual group of old men occupied the picnic tables as they did every afternoon, intent on their mysterious (to me) board game. Women in spandex power-walked past me, arms vigorously swinging and propelling them forward. A…

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Pollination

Pollination, up close and personal!

Priya Ghose Photography

A tiny sweat bee diligently gathers brilliant yellow pollen from the inside of a vibrant red dahlia.

Yes, here we go again…back to my bee photography obsession. I am taking a break from my beloved honeybee photographs to post this image of a very petite native California bee abundantly covered in fluffy dahlia pollen. I have been unable to identify it thus far, and would love any ID leads. Whatever its true identification, I find it quite cute. I’ve admitted to photographing bees while standing in the landscaping of strip malls, as well crawling around on the goose poop laden grass to get up close and personal with baby geese, and also stated that I’m a fixture at local nurseries. This is one of my nursery photos, taken at the edge of a huge grouping of brilliantly flowering dahlias which were teeming with a variety of bees. When I first…

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Honeybee In Flight

A honeybee collects blue pollen…

Priya Ghose Photography

A honeybee, already carrying blue pollen in the pollen baskets or corbicula on its hind legs, flies up to another Pride of Madeira blossom to gather more of this exotic blue substance.

I absolutely adore photographing bees! I will follow them around from flower to flower, totally lost in capturing their activity. In my opinion, this a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

I took this photo, ‘Blue Pollen,’ while standing in a patch of landscaping at a local strip mall. I walk by this area quite frequently, and one day I noticed that the Echium candicans (also known as Pride of Madeira) was buzzing with pollinators. I hurried back home and grabbed my camera, hoping that the late afternoon light would hold long enough for me to get some photographs. I was in luck, and happily snapped photo after photo of adorably fuzzy bumble bees, heavy and awkward carpenter bees…

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A Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Sits On My Finger…

Priya Ghose Photography

A Gulf Fritillary Butterfly (Agraulis vanillae), newly emerged from its chrysalis, sits on my finger before taking its first flight.

I’ve written a bit about the life cycle of the gulf frittilary butterfly here but just wanted to share another photo of one of these cuties, lightly tickling my finger. There are currently many female gulf frittilary butterflies flying about the garden, looking to lay their eggs. They are so intent on their purpose that they completely ignore me as I come up close; I watch them lay eggs on passionflower vine leaves, tendrils, and even flowers.

Click the image to purchase a print of ‘Time To Fly’

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In Search Of Waterlily Pollen

Priya Ghose Photography

A honeybee flies toward a luscious tropical waterlily, anticipating its rich and exotic pollen…

It’s always exciting when two of my favorite photography subjects come together, and this was one instance where I ran into such luck. A bee and a waterlily in the same photograph is quite exciting to an avid bee stalker like myself, as I’ve also been known to spend hours sticking my macro lens into the various tropical waterlilies which grow in my small garden ponds. Some days the bees go nuts for the waterlily pollen, and then there are long periods of time where they show no interest at all. Given that my garden is primarily planted for pollinators, they do have a lot of options in the flower department…but it always makes me happy to see them on my favorite flower – the tropical waterlily.

Click below to purchase a print of The…

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Robins and Crows, This Letter Is For You!

A little letter to the “early birds” in my garden….

Priya Ghose Photography

I bought a wacom tablet while recovering from hand and arm injuries that didn’t allow me to hold my camera, and have been playing around a bit with digital art. I created this crow profile in turquoise, and it seemed appropriate to post it along with the following letter, written about the recent goings on in the garden…

Dear Backyard Birds,

Robins: I realize that the early bird gets the worm and all that, but could you be a tad less vocal about your successes and failures at 4:30 AM?

Crows: Mama Crow, I know you are trying to wean your fledglings (and hopefully this year one won’t get stuck in the garden again), but maybe you could feed them a tad quicker between the hours of 5 and 7 AM, as fledgling crow whining is quite hard to ignore.

Thank you all for your consideration. Feel free to continue…

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Tule Elk Bull

Priya Ghose Photography

A majestic Tule Elk bull, Cervus canadensis ssp. nannodes, rests in the grass, overlooking the scenic ocean vistas at Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California.

I’ve seen tule elk before in other locations, but I’ve never had the opportunity to get as close to a herd as I did this one particular time at Tomales Point. Imagine my surprise and excitement when we rounded the bend on our afternoon hike and came across a large herd just snoozing, eating, and soaking up the afternoon sunshine. Unimpressed by our presence, the elk continued to go about their business as we slowly continued on the trail which led us ever closer. The tule elk bull in this photo blinked his eyes in annoyance as we disturbed his afternoon nap, but quickly decided we weren’t a threat and his eyes grew heavy once again.

Tule elk are only found…

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