Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;

Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,

I may be pluck’d into the swallowing womb

Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus’ grave.

Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons.

Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage!

Tybalt, Mercutio, the prince expressly hath

Forbidden bandying in Verona streets:

Hold, Tybalt! good Mercutio!

It looks all innocent until you realize that those are actually missiles and the flower is preparing to take over the entire flowerbed.

The bee is there to negotiate but, as you can tell from its body language, talks aren’t going well.

I’ve mentioned elsenet that I got a new lens to take photos with in Peru (those will be coming soon, I hope (there are an awful lot of them)).

This was the first zoo-related shot I took with it. It’s special in that it is very fast, very long, and very light, which is just what you want. In this respect, nature photography is exactly like fencing. The similarities continue in that it is fencing that this lens is able to foil. (Sorry)

Specifically, it’s the fence that keeps the lion from eating me as I take his picture that I need to shoot through. A fast lens (one with a small aperture number which, just to screw with you, means a bigger aperture) also means that there is a narrow depth of field. See how the lion is in focus, but the plants immediately behind him are out of focus. This works two ways because the fence up near me is also out of focus. It’s so out of focus it’s basically not there anymore, and the result is an image that looks like it was taken in Africa instead of in Wisconsin.

If you look closely, you can see the the seal’s head it coming out of the water, but the body is bent. This is due to refraction of light as it exits the water … and the fact that seals have necks.