Harimblade Thank You for the great comments! Yes they could be killers, but they are usually very busy and I'm just in the way. I'm glad that you liked this!
Stunning blooms and equally stunning cacti. Latispinus was on my wish list for a while until recently a friend of mine found one for me for sale in a supermarket of all places lol. Thanks for sharing this awesome video 👍☀️🌵
Wow.youre so lucky to have one of this beautiful creatures . You have amazing collections. I saw youre plant swap with Ana of cactus caffeine. Its great.👍 i also like your eriosyce. On my wishlist too..
WOWSERS! Now thats what I call a REAL Flower Extravanganza :-) Absolutely unbelievably beautiful, so many stunning flowers on these Fero's, buds and wow these are some buzzy and busy bees alright haha! bees galore,watching this vid is like the most soothing meditation and feel good vid for the soul to watch :-) wowsers galore at the close up of the bee enjoying his pollen, he looks so cozy in there, I am amazed to see so many ants and bees all happily enjoying those flowers together, its like a whole new world inside them, cutie butterflies, and sweet hairy beetle haha! I have never seen a hairy beetle before LOL! haha! at the Bees wanting their coca cola, cutie snake he was tiny, and soooo good to see you make another appearance in your vid too :-) Thank you for sharing another OUTSTANDING vid Bob and have an amazing week ahead XXXX
heartfullofhappiness When I made the harvest video with the old camera, I was telling myself that the only way to [atone] make it any better, was to purposefully show off the purple purposelessness! Oh by the way, these plants can sometimes have yellow flowers too, but I'm not sure if those only occur on these or are the other subspecies or both. The Cactus Fly and the first butterfly are in the realm of the extremes of camcorder tele-macro filming. I had to remain about a meter away from the subject to maintain the focus. This is very different from the panning close ups like on the last beetle shot, in which I used the auto-macro (no zoom). Both functions will shut off automatically when using the manual zoom, but if I'm in the right spot, you might not be able to notice it. Thanks for all of the great comments!
CupcakeBansheeChild They are really nice looking plants and all I had to do was push a few buttons, haha! Yes, but my ego is very glad to here that you liked this and thanks for the great comments!
Quagmi The last ten of my videos were all filmed with the same camera and you can see how much of a workout it got, along the way. I'm still experimenting with the auto-macro and the tele-macro capabilities and running a few more tests. Hopefully, today will be a cloudy day, because that is the best time to go in close. Yes, I like to combine the real world views with the small stuff and my viewers are lucky that I'm not lugging a microscope or a telescope, all over the place. I'm going to tune in later and watch more of your videos. Thanks
Quagmi Yes, I have been very busy and today it's cloudy again! BTW - The [plastic] frost cloth can also make an excellent light diffusion layer for filming the macros. The more common types of thin, cotton sheets would do the same thing, but they also block or shade out, more of the light. I will leave some comments when I get back to your videos. Thanks
Looking good! Don't have many ferocactus in my collection, but I reckon the latest three that I have bought, could be Ferocactus latispinus. I will have to look and see. This video definitely shows what is possible when you have a very good camera, with perfect zoom lens.
Winston James Thanks, I'm glad that you liked this and I'm also glad that you have more cactus! Yes, these HandyCams are great tools, if you know how and when to push the right buttons, haha. FYI - I'm thinking about making a tutorial, specifically for camcorders and auto-focus. If you find any good info or tips, lease send me a message.
Timmy Eriksson Wow, that's a good question and it's hard to predict the future. The short answer is yes, but before I bore you with the details, some of that kind of stuff is already included in parts of my old videos. You may also have noticed that many of my videos are very lengthy and I like to make them interesting enough to watch over and over again. I will say that if there are [already] thousands of videos about something, then I probably won't be planning to do that video. However, if I ever feel the need for an extravaganza, you just never know what might happen next. Thanks
Please do not hesitate to inform me if you have or have found a video with the other kind of subspecies in it. Those are called subsp. spiralis and they are not in this video. Thank You!
Note: There is another variety of this plant with light, yellowish white flowers. The name is Ferocactus latispinus var. flavispinus and they are not in this video. Thanks goes out to the CactiGuide.com for this info!
Hello. Would you please make one video for Ferocactus latispinus var. flavispinus. Due to how hard it is to find it, I only found it from Italy. The more you posted on youtube the more people know about it and get to protect or reproduce them. Thank you.
Are they European bees, or some kind of native American honeybee? Great shot with the soda can. Beautiful close-up of that fly. (You shoulda turned the camera sideways for a full cinemascope view!) Hmm. If you get a chainsaw and cut a barrel cactus in half, would we see a beautiful geometrical star-shaped mandala cross-section inside? Is it full of jelly or fibres--like a tough old Prickly Pear pad? The hairy beetle was very cute. The snake's pattern seemed to match the pebbles on the ground. Are you using a tripod nowadays? Very steady footage. Your later videos don't make me so seasick as some of your early ones did. (My own videos make me seasick! Haha!) I just saw a sorta African cactus called Hoodia that they make diet pills out of. Do you grow them too? :D
Most of these bees are probably wild European Honey Bees. The fly is a [hand-held] tele-macro test, of a type of Hoverfly called, appropriately, a Cactus Fly and the name is Copestylum isabellina. Well, a chainsaw is not recommended for this, but the cross-sectional views of most plant stems are geometrical and they also may often be symmetrical. The insides of these plants are much softer than the tough, mature Prickly Pear pads. That hairy monster is a type of Darkling Beetle and I believe the name is Edrotes ventricosus. The tripod shots are mixed into parts of this video and you can sometimes tell, because the screen (edge) doesn't drift around at all, even when zoomed way in. Some of the close up action is just me holding the camera about two inches or less above the bees, haha! No, we don’t have any Hoodia here. That is a popular African succulent and it is not a cactus. Thanks for stopping by! Hey, did I make this video long enough to satisfy the need for pink and purple bliss?
zuditaka FYI - I'm using the UA-cam video stabilization enhancement for all of the videos now, because the raw views are almost always shaky and I don't want to make anyone seasick. The videos look much better, but it can be a little like looking through a warping lens or a bent screen and the edges seem trimmed back a tiny bit. Have you noticed this on your videos? Thanks
***** I only used UA-cam VideoEditor stabiliser once, and regretted it (as it made very ugly fuzzy lines around the edges of my video. Still, I did never try it out with high definition, though.) But your videos look very slick, and aren't fuzzy. I did notice that slight bent screen thing occasionally. I thought your video wasn't too short or too long for a cactus-fancier (cactologist?) to enjoy. A lot of people studying botany would want to stop the film and look at the specimens from several angles, anyway. People doing art or graphic design would stop your videos, too, to draw and paint them from different angles. So it's important that we all share our knowledge in video format for others to use and learn from. :)
Pat R. Yes, that is the tele-macro mode and the first butterfly is also, but doesn't your camcorder have this mode? I haven't looked it up yet and I'm leaving to go eat right now. If you like this camera, get the upgraded 330 model, for the optical stabilizer, external mic port and lens attachment options. Thanks
***** Tele-macro? I'm not aware of that feature...does that mean you can be focused on the bee and zoom in closer?? On one of your videos, you mentioned something about a directional mike. I need to know about that too. Also, are you using a tripod? Or are you realllll steady? Or does the camera have a built-in image stabilizer...Is that what you're referring to as the 'optical stabilizer?' I think your zoom is a little smoother than mine too. I waited to write this reply until I returned from visiting my grand daughter. I needed to see that fly close up on my larger laptop. It's definitely decent. Is it a true macro? Is it as big or bigger than 1:1? Possibly, but if you get much closer, you're going to lose your depth of field. Are you happy with it or are you thinking about getting in even closer?
Pat R. This mode is a somewhat similar to a simplified version of your DSLR camera's telephoto-macro capability. Turning it on sets the camera on full-zoom only and it also sets the auto-focus to try focusing only on the closest objects. The minimum focal distance is about 35 cm, so it is much different from the normal auto-macro focusing range, which is about 15 cm or less. Of course I use the auto-macro all the time and you might not be able to tell which one it is in, but if the subject is over about 80 cm away, then I don't need to use it, because the full zoom will still focus all the way. Yes, it must be close to 1:1, because that fly is about 1 cm in length. The camera has a zoom mic, but it may work better indoors. The wind suppression setting is pretty good, but the plastic housing seemed to cause a few noises. Most of the tripod shots came later, in this video. This model uses an electronic stabilizer and the raw footage is still a little shaky. The UA-cam enhancement smooths out most of that and makes it look better, but it also has a few drawbacks. Using an optical stabilizer is more of a "mechanical" stability, during the filming and it is reported to be much better than this. Yes, I want to get closer to some of these bugs. Yes, I'm thinking that I'm just never satisfied, haha.
I'm thinking about buying one of these devil's tounge cactus, and planting it on the ground. Do I have to cover them to prevent frost damage and also cover them from the snow?
I talk about growing cactus in some of my other videos, but this one is mostly about the flowers. You can ask me for specific information, if you need to. Some of my other videos might be helpful. There are lots of videos on the internet, dealing with the "how-to" of growing cactus plants, but your local nursery is the best place to find the important answers, specific to your location. Good Luck!
Spikef22 OK, that's the common name for a Ferocactus gracilis and there are three subspecies of that plant, but the Mexican Fire Barrel usually refers to the Ferocactus pilosus and the California Fire Barrel may be a Ferocactus cylindraceus or acanthodes. Do you know exactly what you have? Well anyway, if that is the case, then I agree with you. You need more of them, haha! There are about forty different Crow's Claw Cactus plants in this video and yes, it's never enough. Thanks for commenting.
Sorry lol ferocactus gracili I only have one and I need to get more down here in Texas we have the horse crippler but that's an echinocerus I thought I had to feros once but it actually was a melocactus
Spikef22 That is a great cactus to plan a video for and I think that the blooming season is in the late springtime. Some of the flowers are truly a fiery red color too. FYI - I often get the characteristics of the subsp. mixed up and so I haven't made that video yet. By the way, I have included the Texas Horse Crippler harvest in this video: ua-cam.com/video/pI-HvNpmrZs/v-deo.html Check it out and please don't get them mixed up with Hedgehogs, haha! Thanks
Hello , I look for some cactus seeds that here in mexico is not easy to find , it is for personal collection , I would greatly appreciate help me , sorry for the bad English
The Ants, Bees, butterflies and beetles seem to enjoy the flowers and live a busy together . Great close up pics -beautiful to watch.
Patrick Meehan Thank You! - Yes, they are all a wild bunch of creeps and some busy bees have truly hectic schedules, haha!
Beautiful shots, beautiful plants. Brave narration in the proximity of a lot of bee action. Very cool.
Harimblade Thank You for the great comments! Yes they could be killers, but they are usually very busy and I'm just in the way. I'm glad that you liked this!
Un.festin para las abejas, saludos desde Tequixquiac México
Great, I'm glad that you liked this. Thanks!
Genial, me alegro que te haya gustado esto. ¡Gracias!
Stunning blooms and equally stunning cacti. Latispinus was on my wish list for a while until recently a friend of mine found one for me for sale in a supermarket of all places lol.
Thanks for sharing this awesome video 👍☀️🌵
Thanks for the great comments!
Wow.youre so lucky to have one of this beautiful creatures . You have amazing collections. I saw youre plant swap with Ana of cactus caffeine. Its great.👍 i also like your eriosyce. On my wishlist too..
WOWSERS! Now thats what I call a REAL Flower Extravanganza :-) Absolutely unbelievably beautiful, so many stunning flowers on these Fero's, buds and wow these are some buzzy and busy bees alright haha! bees galore,watching this vid is like the most soothing meditation and feel good vid for the soul to watch :-) wowsers galore at the close up of the bee enjoying his pollen, he looks so cozy in there, I am amazed to see so many ants and bees all happily enjoying those flowers together, its like a whole new world inside them, cutie butterflies, and sweet hairy beetle haha! I have never seen a hairy beetle before LOL! haha! at the Bees wanting their coca cola, cutie snake he was tiny, and soooo good to see you make another appearance in your vid too :-) Thank you for sharing another OUTSTANDING vid Bob and have an amazing week ahead XXXX
heartfullofhappiness When I made the harvest video with the old camera, I was telling myself that the only way to [atone] make it any better, was to purposefully show off the purple purposelessness! Oh by the way, these plants can sometimes have yellow flowers too, but I'm not sure if those only occur on these or are the other subspecies or both. The Cactus Fly and the first butterfly are in the realm of the extremes of camcorder tele-macro filming. I had to remain about a meter away from the subject to maintain the focus. This is very different from the panning close ups like on the last beetle shot, in which I used the auto-macro (no zoom). Both functions will shut off automatically when using the manual zoom, but if I'm in the right spot, you might not be able to notice it. Thanks for all of the great comments!
Fabian Klump Thanks for the comment. The kitty says thanks too!
Danke für den Kommentar. Die Kätzchen sagt Dank auch!
This was extremely beautiful, thank you for posting :)
CupcakeBansheeChild They are really nice looking plants and all I had to do was push a few buttons, haha! Yes, but my ego is very glad to here that you liked this and thanks for the great comments!
That's some great close-up footage. It's amazing what you can see when you take a closer look
Quagmi The last ten of my videos were all filmed with the same camera and you can see how much of a workout it got, along the way. I'm still experimenting with the auto-macro and the tele-macro capabilities and running a few more tests. Hopefully, today will be a cloudy day, because that is the best time to go in close. Yes, I like to combine the real world views with the small stuff and my viewers are lucky that I'm not lugging a microscope or a telescope, all over the place. I'm going to tune in later and watch more of your videos. Thanks
Thanks, that's great! How was the filming today?
Quagmi Yes, I have been very busy and today it's cloudy again! BTW - The [plastic] frost cloth can also make an excellent light diffusion layer for filming the macros. The more common types of thin, cotton sheets would do the same thing, but they also block or shade out, more of the light. I will leave some comments when I get back to your videos. Thanks
Looking good! Don't have many ferocactus in my collection, but I reckon the latest three that I have bought, could be Ferocactus latispinus. I will have to look and see. This video definitely shows what is possible when you have a very good camera, with perfect zoom lens.
Winston James Thanks, I'm glad that you liked this and I'm also glad that you have more cactus! Yes, these HandyCams are great tools, if you know how and when to push the right buttons, haha. FYI - I'm thinking about making a tutorial, specifically for camcorders and auto-focus. If you find any good info or tips, lease send me a message.
Can u show more videos of growing cactus, sowing of seeds, transplanting into pots! Love seeing greenhouse! More about ur business !
Timmy Eriksson Wow, that's a good question and it's hard to predict the future. The short answer is yes, but before I bore you with the details, some of that kind of stuff is already included in parts of my old videos. You may also have noticed that many of my videos are very lengthy and I like to make them interesting enough to watch over and over again. I will say that if there are [already] thousands of videos about something, then I probably won't be planning to do that video. However, if I ever feel the need for an extravaganza, you just never know what might happen next. Thanks
Please do not hesitate to inform me if you have or have found a video with the other kind of subspecies in it. Those are called subsp. spiralis and they are not in this video. Thank You!
Note: There is another variety of this plant with light, yellowish white flowers. The name is Ferocactus latispinus var. flavispinus and they are not in this video. Thanks goes out to the CactiGuide.com for this info!
Hello. Would you please make one video for Ferocactus latispinus var. flavispinus. Due to how hard it is to find it, I only found it from Italy. The more you posted on youtube the more people know about it and get to protect or reproduce them. Thank you.
Yes, I will keep an eye out for those. Thanks for your comment!
Are they European bees, or some kind of native American honeybee? Great shot with the soda can. Beautiful close-up of that fly. (You shoulda turned the camera sideways for a full cinemascope view!) Hmm. If you get a chainsaw and cut a barrel cactus in half, would we see a beautiful geometrical star-shaped mandala cross-section inside? Is it full of jelly or fibres--like a tough old Prickly Pear pad? The hairy beetle was very cute. The snake's pattern seemed to match the pebbles on the ground. Are you using a tripod nowadays? Very steady footage. Your later videos don't make me so seasick as some of your early ones did. (My own videos make me seasick! Haha!) I just saw a sorta African cactus called Hoodia that they make diet pills out of. Do you grow them too? :D
Most of these bees are probably wild European Honey Bees. The fly is a [hand-held] tele-macro test, of a type of Hoverfly called, appropriately, a Cactus Fly and the name is Copestylum isabellina. Well, a chainsaw is not recommended for this, but the cross-sectional views of most plant stems are geometrical and they also may often be symmetrical. The insides of these plants are much softer than the tough, mature Prickly Pear pads. That hairy monster is a type of Darkling Beetle and I believe the name is Edrotes ventricosus. The tripod shots are mixed into parts of this video and you can sometimes tell, because the screen (edge) doesn't drift around at all, even when zoomed way in. Some of the close up action is just me holding the camera about two inches or less above the bees, haha! No, we don’t have any Hoodia here. That is a popular African succulent and it is not a cactus. Thanks for stopping by! Hey, did I make this video long enough to satisfy the need for pink and purple bliss?
zuditaka FYI - I'm using the UA-cam video stabilization enhancement for all of the videos now, because the raw views are almost always shaky and I don't want to make anyone seasick. The videos look much better, but it can be a little like looking through a warping lens or a bent screen and the edges seem trimmed back a tiny bit. Have you noticed this on your videos? Thanks
***** I only used UA-cam VideoEditor stabiliser once, and regretted it (as it made very ugly fuzzy lines around the edges of my video. Still, I did never try it out with high definition, though.) But your videos look very slick, and aren't fuzzy. I did notice that slight bent screen thing occasionally. I thought your video wasn't too short or too long for a cactus-fancier (cactologist?) to enjoy. A lot of people studying botany would want to stop the film and look at the specimens from several angles, anyway. People doing art or graphic design would stop your videos, too, to draw and paint them from different angles. So it's important that we all share our knowledge in video format for others to use and learn from. :)
Uh oh, I might have found a new camera. Did you shoot the fly clip with the Handy cam too?
Pat R. Yes, that is the tele-macro mode and the first butterfly is also, but doesn't your camcorder have this mode? I haven't looked it up yet and I'm leaving to go eat right now. If you like this camera, get the upgraded 330 model, for the optical stabilizer, external mic port and lens attachment options. Thanks
*****
Tele-macro? I'm not aware of that feature...does that mean you can be focused on the bee and zoom in closer??
On one of your videos, you mentioned something about a directional mike. I need to know about that too.
Also, are you using a tripod? Or are you realllll steady? Or does the camera have a built-in image stabilizer...Is that what you're referring to as the 'optical stabilizer?'
I think your zoom is a little smoother than mine too.
I waited to write this reply until I returned from visiting my grand daughter. I needed to see that fly close up on my larger laptop. It's definitely decent. Is it a true macro? Is it as big or bigger than 1:1? Possibly, but if you get much closer, you're going to lose your depth of field. Are you happy with it or are you thinking about getting in even closer?
Pat R. This mode is a somewhat similar to a simplified version of your DSLR camera's telephoto-macro capability. Turning it on sets the camera on full-zoom only and it also sets the auto-focus to try focusing only on the closest objects. The minimum focal distance is about 35 cm, so it is much different from the normal auto-macro focusing range, which is about 15 cm or less. Of course I use the auto-macro all the time and you might not be able to tell which one it is in, but if the subject is over about 80 cm away, then I don't need to use it, because the full zoom will still focus all the way. Yes, it must be close to 1:1, because that fly is about 1 cm in length.
The camera has a zoom mic, but it may work better indoors. The wind suppression setting is pretty good, but the plastic housing seemed to cause a few noises.
Most of the tripod shots came later, in this video. This model uses an electronic stabilizer and the raw footage is still a little shaky. The UA-cam enhancement smooths out most of that and makes it look better, but it also has a few drawbacks. Using an optical stabilizer is more of a "mechanical" stability, during the filming and it is reported to be much better than this. Yes, I want to get closer to some of these bugs. Yes, I'm thinking that I'm just never satisfied, haha.
I'm thinking about buying one of these devil's tounge cactus, and planting it on the ground. Do I have to cover them to prevent frost damage and also cover them from the snow?
They wont survive the snow. You will have to keep it indoors during the winter. Good luck!
Do you talk about growing them or how much light they get acclimating them or so? Flowers are cool but not very informative about them
I talk about growing cactus in some of my other videos, but this one is mostly about the flowers. You can ask me for specific information, if you need to. Some of my other videos might be helpful.
There are lots of videos on the internet, dealing with the "how-to" of growing cactus plants, but your local nursery is the best place to find the important answers, specific to your location. Good Luck!
I need more feros I only have fire barrel cacti
Spikef22 OK, that's the common name for a Ferocactus gracilis and there are three subspecies of that plant, but the Mexican Fire Barrel usually refers to the Ferocactus pilosus and the California Fire Barrel may be a Ferocactus cylindraceus or acanthodes. Do you know exactly what you have? Well anyway, if that is the case, then I agree with you. You need more of them, haha! There are about forty different Crow's Claw Cactus plants in this video and yes, it's never enough. Thanks for commenting.
Sorry lol ferocactus gracili I only have one and I need to get more down here in Texas we have the horse crippler but that's an echinocerus I thought I had to feros once but it actually was a melocactus
Spikef22 That is a great cactus to plan a video for and I think that the blooming season is in the late springtime. Some of the flowers are truly a fiery red color too. FYI - I often get the characteristics of the subsp. mixed up and so I haven't made that video yet.
By the way, I have included the Texas Horse Crippler harvest in this video:
ua-cam.com/video/pI-HvNpmrZs/v-deo.html
Check it out and please don't get them mixed up with Hedgehogs, haha! Thanks
hello my friend, as might contact you to propose a business?
I'm not using UA-cam for a business. I'm just loading videos. Thanks!
Hello , I look for some cactus seeds that here in mexico is not easy to find , it is for personal collection , I would greatly appreciate help me , sorry for the bad English
Zooms in way too much!
Sorry, I don't do that in all of my videos, but I like to get close.