Yesterday while mowing the yard, I did my normal route through the orchard.  This years harvest seems unreal and most of the limbs on the trees are breaking under pressure from the apples and pears.  The ones that are falling on the ground are rotting quickly and there is a whole other eco-system going on down there, it seems.

Now, I am deathly afraid of bees.  All bees, except bumble bees.  Can’t stand them, scream like the girl I am when they’re around and run away if one is near me.  With that being said, these photos were beyond scary for me to take.  There were bumble bees, yellow jackets (ugh!!!), hornets and wasps(even though they’re not technically bees, I still see them as such) covering the ground and rotten fruit hanging from the tree.  Among them, though – were beautiful butterflies.  Every now and again, a huge hornet would chase after a butterfly, or you would see the bottom of one move only to see a bumble bee crawling out of the fruit it’s sitting on.  Beyond gross, but amazing at the same time.

I took this chance to test out two of my new lenses – my 85mm and 35mm.  These are just a few of my favorite shots, with a REAL view of what was beneath it all at the end.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying – “Do one thing every day that scares you”.  Well, I think this pretty much counts me in for the whole Month of August!