pollinators.

We have family friends that refer to James as Turtle Boy. Seven summers ago when I returned to my hometown after a summer spent working falling in love on Jekyll Island, Georgia, I made an entire roomful of people watch a slideshow of images I’d snapped over the summer. There was so much to share: live oaks dripping in spanish moss, the Rockefeller mansion I’d been helping to restore, the baby sea turtles James was busy saving. But mostly there were pictures of James and those blue eyes. It’s mortifying to think about subjecting my family and friends to my personal ode to summer love, but I’ll chalk it up to being 22 and head over heels.

James isn’t doing work with sea turtles at the moment, and in the lab where he works now he’s recently turned his attention to honey bees. In a change that echoes the changing size of our apartments, he’s swapped charismatic megafauna for charismatic microfauna.

I’m usually too busy hogging the camera for James to get a chance to take any snaps, but this past weekend there was the sea and sand to distract me, so James had a chance to get up close and personal with his new favorite subject: pollinators.

I dare you not to coo at these fuzzy bees and butterflies.

Photos by James Casey.