I’m sorry! That title isn’t at all accurate. The anthers — those little footballs on those threads, which are the stamens — are obviously quite golden. But sometimes you know you’d rather go for the completely wrong joke rather than just say “Hey, Have Some Pollen.” The anthers are each full of pollen, and insects that bust open the anthers carry the pollen around, including to you and me. And they are gold and we are still going to chuckle over my little pun, right?

In late Spring 2024, I bought a Nikon F5, a film camera that was made well into the digital age because it was so well-made and so popular. If you say you shot a photograph with The Beast, every photographer will know you used a Nikon F5.

This was from the first roll of film that I shot with the F5. I don’t take notes on exposure like the pros do. And I trust that camera’s autoexposure a bit more than I do my digital cameras’. But what I wanted was a great close-up shot with my macro lens of those anthers, and the second picture I took with my new film camera nailed it. I love doing close-up work with that macro lens. I believe this is a climbing rose, per the flower identification site I use. But mostly, I love how those anthers are so freakin’ sharp on film on a nice warm day at the nature preserve.

July 20, 2024. Nikon F5, Amber D100, 105mm Nikon macro lens.