I became drawn into the natural world of pollinators after my wife had replaced our home garden with California native plants. We were excited to see first-hand that locally native plants really do attract local birds and insects. I began taking many photographs with a new camera and added a macro lens. I started noticing that we had assorted bees that I knew nothing about so I began my pursuit of studying these critters.
I’ll never forget the moment some years ago when my wife invited me to join her at a Master Gardeners training presentation in San Jose, California. The presenter was Jaime Pawelek who worked for Dr. Gordon Frankie at UC Berkeley. Jaime’s presentation introduced and described the life cycles of many California bee species, their close relationships with native plants and their role in pollination. I was smitten; this was a significant milestone for me.
After many years, I still feel that I didn’t choose bees, they chose me. I know that statement has been said many times by many people but I cannot say why I’m so fascinated by these creatures. I combine my passions for bees and photography to show facets of paired life cycles of bees and plants.

On photography:
Photography guides often recommend taking pictures about something or someone instead of just taking pictures of something or someone. In other words, when we look at a photo it’s often what story the image conveys and not the image itself. Pollination is like that for me: it’s not enough to take a nice picture of a bee or a flower but instead my goal is to ask “What is this about?” or “What’s happening here and now?” Sharing this is my goal here in the California Pollination Project.

Thank you Jenny Hazlehurst for creating this project!
John Kehoe, June 20, 2020

Many insects need detailed, close-up photos for proper identification. I use a combination of clip-on macro lenses, which range from $5-20, that attach to my cell phone for smaller pollinators (<0.5inches). Here are some great options:

15X macro with rechargeable LED:
https://www.amazon.com/AMIR-Phone-Beauty-Flash-Light/dp/B071LGWGD9

10X macro lens (no LED):
https://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Ailun-Universal-Samsung-BlackBerry/dp/B01E18OYVW/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=clip+on+macro+lens+for+phone&qid=1591729320&sr=8-6

4X macro lens band (no LED):
https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Macro-Magnification-Closeup-Pictures-Smartphone/dp/B00BQ3ECLS/ref=sr_1_12_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=clip+on+macro+lens+for+phone&qid=1591729355&sr=8-12-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyOUVOMFpCMjFNQzE3JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODUzOTc4MUc4NkpEWUUyNFNESyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTUyMTM1Mk03VVowVlRaRVU4TCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX210ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Be aware that you will want to make sure the lens fits over your phone and case.

Let's try to discover 100 new, undescribed by science interactions between a plant and a pollinator this summer during the bloom in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California!! For the vast majority of California's plants and pollinators we do not have well-documented data on these important plant-pollinator interactions. Help us fix this and let's get to 100! Check back for updates every 2 weeks!

It is our state flower in California, but how much do we really know about what pollinators visit it? Let's fill in the gaps by uploading as many pictures of visitors to the California Poppy as we can! For more info on the state flower visit it's Calflora page here: https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=3512.

We have 33 new plant-pollinator visitation interactions at the plant genus : visitor order taxonomic level! Here I am sharing an interaction network diagram; it's like a map of the plants and pollinators that interact with one another. The plants are on the left side and the (potential) pollinators are on the right. If there is a grey line between them, that means that they interact! You might notice that those grey lines are different widths or thicknesses; this means something! The wider the interaction line, the more times that type of interaction has been observed. Check out what your data made:

Can you help us get 100 new plant-pollinator interactions for the Sierra Nevada in 2019?! Stay tuned for weekly count updates. Challenge begins on 7/13/2019.

Help us document which plants and pollinators depend on one another in California!