Macro Photography • Pollinator Advocacy • Classes • Habitat Consultation
This slogan encompasses the reason I am launching Flying Tongue Pictures.
I began tracking pollinators after planting free wildflower seeds from Puget Sound Beekeepers Association when we kept honey bees. My first efforts were fairly fruitless as Android tablet cameras are not great. Still, I was intrigued. Mirrorless cameras dropped into a range I could afford in the early 2020s so I took the leap.
Macro photography probably does not come easy for most. Macro photography of fast moving insects is not a natural skill. The first results are likely meager. Every year when “pollinator season” begins in earnest, I need a few (bad) days to retrain.
About the time my confidence grew, Washington Native Bee Society and I discovered one another. I had been volunteering with Beacon Food Forest and it was there that I continued the pollinator tracking efforts Eli Bloom had begun in 2014, renaming it Pollinator-Plus.
Washington Native Bee Society encourages recording native bees across the state. They host a Project on iNaturalist to help track our state's bee populations. WNBS is a great place to learn why bees are so important and how we can help them thrive. It is also full of bee nerds, many with years more photo experience than I.
When people describe me as “photographer”, I have dismissed the phrase because I saw myself as a person tracking pollinators. And planting for them. Once you get into bees, you get into flowers.
In Spring 2025, after a few very successful bee excursions not far from my home, my mind changed. Since 2021, I have recorded over 30,000 photos and hundreds of videos. Cue the 10,000 hour theory. It only makes sense to bring this useful skill to the public. It also may provide financial opportunity. I now post on photo stock listing sites, where I only expect to accrue meaningful sums after a few years. Add it to the learning curve.
As you can see on the site, I offer calendars, photos and classes. Classes will cover macro photography, image processing, pollinator habitat guidance and teaching appearances through various venues.
To be clear, this is now a profession for me, I’ll just have to figure how to fit it among my other multiple interests.
Flying Tongue Pictures is way more than pretty pictures.
