Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Together briefly


Together briefly - II, originally uploaded by imarsman.

This photo of two Long-horned bees mating on a flower is one of my favourite invertebrate photos in a while. It was taken offhandedly, though with carefully checked exposure, at the main building of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton.

I love the deep, rich colour and the fact that it draws the bees into the scene. The richness of tones reminds me of those one sees in Rembrandt paintings, tending towards the dark, but not too much to obscure. Rembrandt paintings, when I was young, used to strike me as too dark and sombre, but now, as I try to learn more about colour and tonal ranges, I tend to admire this sort of thing more. Perhaps doing strong tones while still allowing lighting in a scene to work so very well was Rembrandt's way of showing off.