5 Things to Learn About Honeybees

Recently we have all become aware of honeybees being in danger.  From colony collapse to the dreaded Murder Hornet decimating the inhabitants of working bee hives.

There are several factors that contribute to Colony Collapse Disorder.  Everything from the overuse of pesticides, to climate change, habitat loss to good old-fashioned disease are taking its toll on the honeybee population. 

While the Murder Hornet also known as the Asian Giant Hornet, will enter a bee hive and it’s nothing short of a horror movie plot where the hornet uses it giant mandibles to decapitate the worker bees and feast on their bodies. The hornets then fly back to their nest and feed their young the thoraxes of the honeybees. 

As I was recording a recent episode for The Nature Photography Podcast, the subject this time was honeybees. Here are the top five things I learned about honeybees.

1.     Honeybees are a Keystone Species

 We as humans need honeybees to keep our plants thriving. 

By definition, a keystone species is one species that plays a major role in the ecosystem.  With the removal of a keystone species, it could create a ripple effect across the ecosystem where the whole system could collapse.

The term “Keystone Species” comes from field of architecture and the building of an arch.  The keystone is the center stone at the top center of the arch, that if were to be removed, it would cause the entire arch to fall down. 

The bees take on this role of keystone species  by pollinating our plants that we enjoy and consume every day.  Without plant life flourishing, we as humans would have a very difficult time surviving. 

It goes like this: The bees land on a flower of a plant to gather nectar.  By doing this, they gather the pollen as it sticks to the hairs on their bodies. Then they fly over to the next plant and bring some of that pollen with them, there by pollinating THAT plant. The honeybees also bring pollen back to their hive to use in feeding the young and supplementing their diet.  

The bees, while wearing this pollen sweater, run into other bees in the hive and crisscross the pollen from one bee to another.  Those bees then go out and land on different plants there-by creating cross-pollination that will maintain the genetic diversity of the plant community. 

2.      Short Lifespan

The honeybee has a short but busy lifespan. When a new bee is borne. It emerges from its cell and starts to learn how to clean up.  It cleans up her cell and begins helping out with other cells.  Shortly after that, the honeybee can be cast into several different roles.  One is the job of caring for the queen.  Bringing her meals, cleaning her and such.  Another job is to guard the hive by checking all the comings and goings at the front gate of the hive.  Yet another job is undertaker. Removing dead bees from the hive.  Lastly at about three weeks old, they become foragers.  These are the bees we are most familiar with as they are the ones that go out and find plants with nectar and pollen to bring back to the hive.  The life cycle of the honeybee? Six weeks. 

While the honeybee worker bee only lives about six weeks, the queen of a hive can live up to five years.

3.     Bees Need to Orient Themselves

When the honeybee is heading out for the first time to begin foraging for food, she needs to memorize how to get back to the hive.  This is called the Orientation Flight.  They start near the entrance to the hive, testing out their wings and making sure they know where the entrance to the hive is.  Then they start to fly in little arcs or figure eights, out in front of the hive. Gradually increasing the arcs to wider areas.  They are looking all around to see, that tree is there, that rock is in that place, and there is the entrance to the hive.  Essentially, they are setting their GPS units to know how to get back safely. 

 4.     There is More to Pollen than you Thought

The bees consume the nectar as their carbohydrate and they consume the pollen as their protein for a balanced diet. In fact, honey is mixed with pollen to form a sort of  “bee bread”,   that is fed as the first meal to a new emerging bee.

At some point, the bees go out to specifically gather pollen for the hive. In this case, the bees brush the pollen from their bodies down to their hind legs into what is called pollen baskets.  These will collect and hold the pollen until the bee gets back to the hive. When the baskets are full, the bee makes her way back to the hive to dump off the pollen and then back out for another haul of pollen. 

Drone honeybee

5.     Few Male Bees in a Colony     

The male bee is called a drone.  The ratio is about one drone bee to every 100 female bees.  The drone does basically nothing its entire life span, except when its time to mate.  It gets fed by the worker bees, cleaned up after and tended to in every way.  When it’s time to mate, the drone leaves the hive and goes up into the air where other drones are hanging out and meeting with queens from other hives or even new queens from their own hive. They are about two weeks old at this time.

Once the drone is successful in mating with a queen in mid-air, he dies.  He has done his job and falls lifeless to the ground.

That same queen can mate with several other drones at the same event and then keep the drone’s genetic material inside them to fertilize eggs at a later date.  

The honeybee is a fascinating subject and it’s this fascination that draws people into beekeeping. If you are interested in beekeeping, check out local organization in your area to find out what you need to get started beekeeping.

5 Reasons NOT to Hate Crows

Photo courtesy of BozsikImagery.com

The common American Crow is a very polarizing bird.  There are still a few of us that can appreciate the crow as a very fascinating creature. However, most people dislike or even hate crows.

 There are all kinds of stories bantered about of how crows eat the eggs of other, more valuable birds or band together to kill small animals.  In fact, in medieval times, when  crows were seen hoping amongst the bodies of those killed on the battlefield, a group of crows were colorfully named as a “murder” of crows. 

 When I began researching for the podcast, Dirty Crows, part of The Nature Photography Podcast series, I found out quite a few very interesting stories about crows.  These birds are highly intelligent and you just can’t hate a bird when it’s this smart.

Here are five reasons NOT to hate crows.

1.      Crows Value Family

 Crows are known to mate for life.  While the mating pair will often gather in large groups, when it comes to mating season, the same two crows get back together for their parental duties. 

 The crow’s family order is also something to admired.  It has been studied that juvenile crows, stick around and help at the family nest.  These young birds will stay and protect the nest from predators, bring food back to mom and dad and even help feed their younger siblings in the nest. These juvenile birds don’t just do this for one season, they stick around and help out at the nest for up to five years!

 With a crow’s  lifespan of only seven to eight years, that is more than half its young life, tending to the family first.

Photo courtesy of BozsikImagery.com

2.     Crows Have Big Brains

Most people think of the term bird brain to illustrate how stupid someone can be. But in the crow’s case the brain is quite large.  When you consider the brain to body ratio, the crow’s brain is amazingly large.  While coming in at only; point two ounces, the ratio to body weight is 2.7 percent of the entire bird.  In contrast, the human brain is only about 1.9 percent in the brain to body ratio.  So, we can extrapolate from that fact, that crow are smarter than some humans.

 Researchers have found that the crow’s brain is on par with the great apes. In some circles the crow is called “feathered apes”. Even having more capabilities than the apes when it comes to cognitive reasoning. 

 Cognitive reasoning is measured by things like sustained attention, speed of information processing, working memory and pattern recognition. 

3.     The Fables Are True

There is a common Aesop’s Fable called; The Crow and the Pitcher. 

 This story tells of a thirsty crow that comes across a pitcher of water that is just too low to drink.  The crow figures out that if it starts dropping pebbles one-by-one, into the pitcher, the water level will slowly rise and enable the crow to quench his thirst.

 As it turns out, this was indeed the case and the fable is true.  Scientists employed a comparable on test crows.  They did a test with a floating worm in a pitcher of water. The opening was too narrow so the crow could not get it’s beak on the worm.  The crow thought it through and went out and found pebbles and filled the pitcher with those pebbles to raise the water level to get at the worm.  The test crows also knew enough to be even more effective by bringing larger pebbles to drop into the pitcher to get the task done even faster.

4.     Crows Are Clever

In California, crows have been observed watching traffic signals to help them prepare a meal.

 When crows came across some tasty walnuts, they were seen flying down and placing the hard-shelled walnut onto the asphalt of city intersections.  Then, they would wait for cars to roll over the nut, crushing it to expose the meaty center. 

 How did the crows avoid getting run over, you ask?  Well, they would watch the lights and only go down to pick up or drop off a nut when the light was red. They’d show patience and wait a complete traffic light cycle and only then pick up their crushed walnuts. 

5.     Crows Have Great Memories

A study a team from the University of Washington did some tests on their local crows.  The idea was to see how well crows could identify human faces. 

The group went out and bought some Halloween masks.  One was a caveman mask and another was a mask of, at the time, Vice president Dick Cheney.  The idea was that the caveman mask would be the test and the Dick Cheney mask was for control status. So, it had nothing to do with political preference. 

At five different locations, the caveman masks were worn when trapping and banding some of the wild crows.  Crows don’t go for that capturing business. 

 When they were being released, the crows squawked and scolded the caveman looking human.  Even other crows nearby joined in the ruckus cawing and dive bombing the caveman.

 Over several years, the masks were worn on casual strolls through those areas and were always greeted with harassing calls and swooping behaviors to the caveman and the Dick Cheney mask was generally ignored… well at least by the crows.

 The trapping and tagging of the crows were only done the first few times, so scientists were amazed that the swooping and angry calls continued years later when someone appeared with the caveman mask. 

 What is really amazing, is that some birds where not even alive when the study started.  But they still scolded the mask wearer anyway.  The “Attack the Mask” was clearly passed on to younger birds and so the grudge was passed on through generations. 

Photo courtesy of BozsikImagery.com

Knowing all this about crows, you can’t hate crows.  They are too smart, too clever and too fun to watch and enjoy.

Professional Photographers BEWARE of SCAMS!

Professional Photographers Beware of SCAMS!!

I have been a professional photographer for many years and occasionally I see fraudulent situations arise. I want to make sure that other professional photographers are on the look out for scams like this one and don’t fall for it.

The general rule of thumb is that if a deal is too good to be true, it usually is.

Like many professional photographers who are coming out of the pandemic, work has been lean, so when a job presents itself, you need to follow it through.

This was all through email - as are most of my customer contact these days - so be aware. The email started as most inquires do, they contact me through the email address I have listed on my web site.

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There is a string of emails and I will walk you through how this laid out.

The email was from this guy Curtis Bryan who wanted Aerial Photography of a location in Oakland not far from my location.  I’m sure it was a fake name. I followed it back to a simple gmail address. So it could be anyone.

I figured since it was on my website, that I was licensed drone operator and that did commercial drone photography and video, someone could have easily stumbled upon my website and made initial contact.

The first contact was to ask if I did Aerial Photography and I responded with yes, and what was the project he had in mind?

His response:

Thanks for your reply, I will like you to take an aerial photograph of the whole site including the cardinal directions at 200 and 400 feet for an architecture and landscape use because the images will be used to provide an actual budget for the construction and also I will like you to get back with me on how much it will cost me for you to do a video-graphic site inspection for 20 days because there's going to be a fast-track construction on the site as soon as the blueprint is provided by the architect so I will be needing a drone especially for site inspection afterward and i will like to secure my space with you. I should have been there in person to do this inspections or call you,but I'm in the hospital at the moment but due to my present condition I was diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo a surgery soon.

The red flag here is the “lung cancer” line.  Most people don’t lay the ground work with adding personal information unless it will be needed later in the transaction. However, I have to make the bid, just in case it’s a real customer looking for a price.

I asked him what the address of the site was, since I knew it would be a bigger pain to get FAA clearance for a site too close to an airport or some other protected area. As with all aerial shoots, it starts with an address of the site that needs images or video.

His response:

The lot is at: (he gave me a vague address not far from my studio).

The shoot would be a straight consecutive 20 days excluding Sundays. And yes you’d be required to be on site taking overhead video shot and some ground shoot for the inspection. Am also looking for the project to start on the 25th of August.

In other words the breakdown is as follows:

10 still images: Top down 200 and 400 ft Look West 200 and 400 ft Look East 200 and 400 ft Look North 200 and 400 ft Look South 200 and 400 ft and a short video of the site from the top.

As soon as we’re done with this within a week, the second week the blueprint will be out then we shall proceed with the construction and you will be needed on site for 20 days, overhead drone recording the site for inspection and monitoring. And of course a final image and short video when the project is complete,

You’re to make yourself available with the drone for  1 hours daily. We might not spend up to that sometimes  .I’ll be available from 9am -5pm daily  .Keep me posted when coming in and do get back to me with the cost for 20 days?

The proposal was very precise. Directions and altitudes that I needed to shoot from, and so fourth.

I thought something was strange, but I kind of had no choice but to do the paper work and give him a quote of what it would take to get to the location 20 days in a row to photograph the changes in his construction site. I thought, 20 days is pretty fast, but I don’t do construction so what do I know.

I broke down all the costs and it came to just over $10,000.

His response:

Thanks for the response and I am okay with the estimate and ready to proceed with the upfront payment, i hope you accept the credit card as a method of payment,also I would like you to do me a little favor concerning the architect before i proceed with the payment,thanks.

Ha!  Another couple of red flags.  First is the poor grammar, likely generating from a foreign country. As the un-capitalized “I” and some run on sentences. Second Red Flag: A “favor” concerning the architect?  I asked what the favor was.

Here was his response:

Thank you so much for asking , the favor is regarding the architect  I actually met with him to discuss his payment due to my present condition I was diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo a surgery soon and we had agreed on how he’s going to get his money but i have no means of doing that from here due to limited availability of resources in the hospital so i would like you to please include his commitment fee of $11,000 to the total deposit  as soon as payment clears in your account you will help forward portion to him so we can proceed with the project because without the commitment fee he’s not ready to proceed with the project, you know the current situation of the country. I’ll send you my card to charge for the total of $15,800 as soon as the funds clear to your account you help me transfer the rest to the architect .

Total Breakdown

Total Charges: $15,800

Deposit: $4,000

The Architect fee: $11,000

Card processing fee: $300

Tips for the stress;$500

So that was it.  Not only are his number whacky, he over pays me, I take a “fraudulent’ Credit card, then I am suppose to deposit money into the account of some architect who obviously doesn’t take credit cards.  After I give the architect the $11 grand, the credit card fails and I’m stuck holding the bag.

And he’s going to through in an extra $500 for all my stress!

I knew this was a scam so I decided to waste his time, like he did me.

I sent him back:

You mentioned the surgery. I hope that goes well for you.

Let me get back with an invoice. What is your company name so I can fill out the invoice.

Good luck, thanks.

(This is me trying to sound compassionate for his usual problem of being stuck in a hospital and needing someone he doesn’t even know to handle his banking).

His response:

Name ; Curtis Bryan

Company Name ;DIAMODUS.COM

Phone number;(480) 867-9087

Go ahead and send me the invoice,Thank you.

I did a little checking and saw that Diamodus.com is just a site where you can buy domain names not a construction company and the number was from Mesa, Arizona. I didn’t call it.

I led him on some more:

Thanks for the info, can I get the street address for your company so I can put that on the invoice?  My credit card company makes me have that.  Please include the zip code, too.

He then asked me what was the merchant that I use to process credit cards, I ignored that request all together.

Finally he gave me his business address :

Business address ;120 N Washington Square, Lansing MI 48933

So, I looked up where that was on google maps and saw that is was downtown Lansing, and thought I need to mess with the guy a bit more. He likely wasn’t at that address but I thought it would be more fun to do it this way.

I wrote:

Wow, what small world.

That’s not too far from where my wife’s sister works at the Michigan State Capitol.  She’s  the assistant to the AG, (Attorney General ) Dana Nessel herself.  Do you know her?

My sister-in-law’s name is Diane Winston (made up name).  I’ve only met Dana a couple of times. (As if I am on a first name basis with the Attorney General of Michigan.)

Curtis writes back:

No i don't know her, I am patiently waiting for the invoice so i can proceed with the payment.asap.

I wrote back:

Yeah, I thought it might be a long shot that you would know her.  I know she goes down to the Lucky Steak (made up restaurant name) for lunch sometimes, didn’t know if you have run into her around town.

She also goes to some bar in downtown after work….um...I can’t think of the name of it but I think its pretty popular though. Boy, you get a few drinks in her and she’s a real hoot!

Anyway,  What is the name and address of the architect that you will need me to pay?

I’ll need all of his/her information  to go to my book keeper, she’s stickler for details. She wants their  social security number, Federal tax ID, etc.

Thanks!

Curtis writes back:

I will send you the Architect Banking Details once you charge my card through and funds deposited into your Account for you to do his deposit.

Of course he has the banking details, but he can’t pay him himself, he NEEDS me to take his bogus credit card, probably a stolen credit card and deposit cash into a soon to be mentioned account.

So I ignore his last email and write this: (like I have been racking my brain to come up with the name of the bar, my sister-in-law goes to, found a popular bar on Yelp in that area):

Stobers Bar!

I knew I’d remember it. Its over on E. Michigan Ave.

Once I was there with my sister-in-law and they had an apple dunking night.  They took this huge vat, must have been 400 gallons of water in it and then they floated apples in it.

The girls would go in after the apples, and I’m telling you that was something to watch.  Whew!

Have you ever been to Stobers?  Do they still have apple night?

Sadly, he never responded to me after that.  Oh well. 

This is a warning for other professionals that are looking for work. Yes, you have to treat every contact, be it email or DM or phone call, like it is a real customer. However, be aware of the scams out there.

I had a Postal Money order scam that was attempted on me several years ago, you can read about that here: Postal Money Order Fraud.

How Levitation Photography and Photoshop Solved a Problem

I had a fun challenge the other day where I needed to make an interesting image for a company. The company was Safepath Products. They produce wheelchair ramps, level landings and other products to help architects and builders comply with ADA regulations. Among, other things, these products make the workplace and schools safer to simply walk through the doorway without tripping on a non-compliant threshold.

So, my challenge was to create an image that was going into an email campaign. Everyone knew that the email had only a few seconds to make an impression before it was dumped into the junk mail abyss. So the image had to be compelling.

Here is the completed image we came up with.

We had to do a little planning on how this was all going to come together. Since it wasn’t on video we had the luxury of controlling the image so no one would need to sacrifice their body to get the shot.

We just needed to suspend the actor in place for a short time.

The way to do these shots is to set the shot up the way you want it, with your lighting and such, then take a shot (or two) with the actor in place. Then leaving the camera locked down on a tripod, remove everything from the set. This makes Photoshop work much easier in the end.

Simply lay the shot with the actor directly over the shot of the background only using layers. Make sure they are perfectly aligned. Even the slightest movement of the camera or the set will not show as perfectly registered.

I find it pretty simple of taking the step to lower the opacity of the top layer to about 50%, then look closely at the image. If things are creating a slight double vision look, then they are not perfectly aligned. Simply move the top layer ever so slightly using the move tool and the arrow keys to just nudge the top layer into position.

Next, do the retouching that was required. Here is the list to refer to the image above.

A. remove any distractions that might be in the background. A small thing like a fire alarm might make a viewer look at that and not the image. Clone tool, spot healing brush, or content-aware fill should do the job nicely.

B. Take out the string used to suspend the neck-tie.Fix the tie where the clip was holding it

C. Crop out box from main light.

D. Take out window sign

E. Remove the chain from doors.

F. Remove names from paperwork

G. Remove any logos on paperwork

H. Removal of clear tape holding the papers askew.

I. Miscellaneous retouching removal of debris on the floor.

J. Removed the wooden stool the actor used to support most of his weight.

K. Lighten up the pillar and generally make the outside area look like good morning light.

L. Replaced the toe of the shoe (pulled from a different image) that was hidden from the support box.

M. Removed box used for leg support. With this box, the legs could start high, the actor could lift his legs higher in the image for each shot.

N. Add new floor shadow.

O. Rebuild cuff of pants that was unnaturally bent against the box.

P. At this location the threshold was fine and in compliance. So I had to select out and lift the entire threshold and add a slight shadow to make the threshold look raised and therefor believable that someone would trip over it.

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“…a 28% open rate of this email.”

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The best part of this email campaign was that upon reviewing of the stats on the first mail out - 28% of recipients opened and read the email and just over 5% went on to click through to the web site. Those are pretty good results.

5 Tips to a Better Online Meeting

I'm going to give you five tips from a professional photographer’s point of view, to make yourself look better and sound better on your next online meeting. 

Number one, the most important thing you can do to improve the way you look on screen is to get a better camera angle. Most people work on a laptop and the camera is usually on the top of the screen.

That means if you're sitting in front of your computer, the camera is looking up at you. Most professional photographers would never photograph you from this angle because it's not flattering and makes your chin look wider and the view is basically up your nose. The simple solution is to raise the camera up.

This way, you're looking straight into the camera, or even better, looking slightly up to the camera. The easiest way to do this is to set your laptop on a stack of books. Or something secure while you're in your meeting, then slightly tilt the camera down towards you.

 If you need to type in your meeting, consider using a wireless keyboard. That way it will look all awkward if you tried to reach up to your computer. 

The second tip to improve your communication on your next zoom meeting is to look into the camera when you're speaking, not the screen. Most people will look at themselves on the screen while they talk. Now. It's not that everyone is so vain that they can't keep their eyes off themselves. It's because they're used to looking at the other person while they talk. 

When you're looking at the screen, while you're talking to the viewer, it looks like you're looking to the side, find the camera on your computer, and it's usually at the top center of your laptop screen or on the side on an iPad. When it's your turn to talk, look directly into the camera and try not to stare at the screen.

The person on the other end will have a much more connected feel to you. This is not the easiest tip to accomplish, but try to talk INTO the camera instead of looking at your own face. 

The third tip to consider is your lighting. The simple way to improve your lining is to use reflected light. Avoid light from only directly overhead, but opt to use some dedicated light source that you can illuminate your face with. Instead of pointing a hard light directly at you, make it softer by bouncing light off of something that's even in tone.

A white wall works perfectly. If you don't have a white wall, put up a temporary piece of white cardboard.  Try to get something that's white or neutral in color. You don't want to use a strong color like red or blue because that might put a color cast on your face.

Another choice in lighting might be to face into a window on your next meeting. As long as the sun isn't streaming through, that should help the lighting on your face.

The fourth tip is to consider your background. Never face your camera into a window. The contrast is too much. These cameras on our devices are nice, but they can't differentiate that kind of contrast. If you face your camera into the window, it will create glare and make it very uncomfortable for the viewer to look at you.

Before you start. Take a quick look at what's behind you. You usually have some time from when you sign into the meetings, before they start.  So, check out the room you are recording in and see if a few things need to be straightened up in the background. 

Lastly, tip five, consider your sound. While most people don't have a dedicated microphone for this sort of thing, simply use the headset that came with your phone.

That should do the trick. The point is, is that the microphone on your headset will be next to your mouth instead of being relatively far away and actually back on the computer keyboard. When the microphone is closer to your mouth, you'll get a better sound because the mic won't be picking up so much extra room noise. As a bonus, since you're wearing your headphones, you're going to be able to hear the other speakers a lot better. 

To summarize, 

1)    Raise the camera, which will likely mean raising your computer screen. 

2)   To talk directly into the camera. 

3)   Soften the light on your face.

4)    Consider your background before you start.

5)    Improve your sound.