Chasing Light: Closeup

A bee gathers pollen on a native wildflower along the Blue River in Breckenridge.

Sometimes you just get a lucky shot.

Delicate aerial maneuvers by this moth to get at the good stuff (nectar) are represented by the twisted wings.

I’m a cheapskate photographer so I have never owned a true macro lens, just some zooms with a “sort-of” macro capability, as well as a few compact digital cameras with a macro function, which is not the same as a true dedicated macro setup. It’s not a huge issue because I’m generally looking at larger landscapes. When I do look at things through the lens, it’s usually something as big as a mushroom.

But every now and then I see something really cool that’s really small, invariably making for an in-only moment. So I do the best I can with what I have and sometimes I just get lucky, like with the last two shots in this set, both taken with an iPhone camera, when my insect stalking paid off. The honey bee (you’ve heard about the plight of the honeybees, right?) image was captured with a rather old Fuji Finepix compact digital, which has the best digital macro function that I’ve seen in a compact camera. All shots were taken in the Breckenridge Alpine Garden near the Riverwalk Center, a haven for native plants, birds and insects.