Summer Eye Candy on our Anniversary

In August 2007, a gender-unknown person by the name of Cy Savino uploaded a stunning close-up of a bee in multi-hued buds. Almost a year later, I now know her real name.

Cynthia Savino spends her summers as a dance instructor at the Albuquerque Academy. She's also a fencing enthusiast talented enough to coach. And she belongs to a number of Flickr groups aside from Ketzel's, including Secret Life of Plants and The Flower Show.

The girl's got an eye for plants and invertebrates, for sure. Congrats, Cynthia, on being named TP Summer Eye Candy of the Year!

If you'd like to know more about Cynthia's macro photography, stop by her Flickr page and drop her a friendly, "Ketzel sent me" line.

photo credit: cy_savino

 

A bug in a bud has got to be worth at least two in a blog -- which brings to mind one of the best-loved creature pix of Talking Plants' first year. It dates from September 2007 and was credited to Judie Dunn (alas, we haven't had any submissions from her in a while). The title of that day's blog was Beautyberry and the Beast.

The identity of the spider caused quite a stir when the post went up. The last word went to Bill Barber, a spider expert and TP friend: "I think I can agree with Phidippus spp., but I thought (from the B.J. Kaston book) it's the male (not female) of the genus that have the vertical 'eyebrow tufts.' From this photo it's hard to tell if the chelicerae are iridescent, which would further suggest male." We are so beyond hip ...

photo credit: Judie Dunn

 

We've had so many wonderful summer pix in the last year, to pick one is certainly not to diss another. We've featured a few of them on the NPR homepage billboard just in the last week, but you never did get to see the one below in its entirety.

I was pretty sucker-punched by this white peony and its pink belly button until I saw the photographer's name. Ah yes, Aleth11, I should have known. She's one of the most frequent contributors to the Talking Plants Flickr Group and her stuff just gets better and better. I couldn't help but notice that her grandma BJ was one mean photographer, too.

photo credit: aleth11

 

There's still a little time left for you to nominate your favorite of our first year's TP Flickr Pix. But if you're not up to the challenge, come back tomorrow for more of the best of the best ...

2:33 PM ET | 06-30-2008 | permalink

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