Photographing Flowers

Bees Eye View

This is a shot of an Echinacea ‘Harvest Moon’ in my garden. The roots of Echinaceas, also called cone flowers, are used as an herbal remedy, and variants of the Echinacea are hybridized as a showy garden flower.

From the viewpoint of the bee or other pollinator, the issue is whether the flower sends out attractive signals. But an exotic hybrid species like Echinacea ‘Harvest Moon’ depends upon upscale gardeners for survival—and this changes the name of the game. Who cares what the bees think? This kind of flower is a signpost of human narcissism as a species, and is all about us.

Photo: 105mm macro, 1/4 of a second at f/14 and ISO ...