Mika Geiger Photography

Home
United States
Austin, TX
Mika Geiger Photography

Nature photography, specializing in macro

06/15/2026

Each evening, a group of male two-spotted longhorn bees gathers on a firecracker plant in my garden. By morning, they wake up as if it never happened, once again chasing each other around as they search for females.

Like many male native bees, they spend the night sleeping on stems, flowers, and other vegetation. Female bees are busy collecting pollen and laying eggs, while males spend their days searching for mates. These bees were clamped to the stem with both their jaws and feet, remaining perfectly still until the morning warmed up. I feel lucky to have these little visitors in my garden!

05/05/2026

I don’t usually photograph birds, but for a few days in South Padre, I got to step into that world with people who really know what they’re doing.

Watching Todd Council work—focused, patient, in his element—it’s easy to see why he loves it. A different rhythm than I’m used to.

Such a fun mix being out there with Egídio Leitão , Visions by Chery and Dominica Palounek Council too. I mostly followed along and just enjoyed being part of it.

Loved every minute of it… but bugs are still my happy place.

05/01/2026

EDIT: I had this as a male, but those furry hind legs should have give it away—this is a FEMALE Centris collecting pollen and oils. I'm still learning these details as I go.

I knew I was supposed to be photographing birds at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, but my eyes kept going to the smaller things with more legs.

This male oil digger bee, Centris decolorata, definitely made me work for it. Every time I brought the lens up, he vanished deep beneath the Barbados cherry blooms. I stayed put, kept things calm, and eventually he decided I wasn’t a threat—giving me a few chances before disappearing again.

I’d never seen a bee like this—more like a colorful little teddy bear. He was sipping nectar while hanging around these Barbados cherry blooms—somehow these male bees know this is where the females will show up.

Oil digger bee females do something pretty unique—collecting floral oils instead of just nectar. They use those oils to provision their nests, mixing them with pollen to create food for their larvae.

04/30/2026

Photographing insects in flight has definitely been a learning curve—figuring out the right settings, how to track them, and anticipate where they’re headed instead of reacting.

I’ve worked on that in a few of Pollinator Portraits by J Madrigal workshops on bees and dragonflies in flight (the ones here I photographed at his workshops). He’s a talented photographer and teacher, and his ranch has such a diversity of insects and other creatures (including tree frogs 🙂). The small group setting makes it really fun too, lots of laughter mixed with learning.

Jose has a workshop coming up in May and I’ll be there! If you’re interested in attending, feel free to message me—I’m happy to share details and a discount code he gave me to pass along🥰

04/13/2026

She reminded me of a kid diving into a ball pit.

This cactus chimney bee disappeared into the center of an alicoche bloom, leaving just a hint of her behind before popping back out coated in pollen. (You can just see her bottom sticking up in the next photo)

She’s built for this—compact enough to push deep into the flower, with dense hairs that catch pollen as she moves through. And the flower seems to be designed for her as well. To reach the nectar, she has to push through that pollen, and there’s no real way in or out without brushing against that large green tube in the center—leaving pollen right where it needs to be, and carrying the rest with her to the next bloom.

04/10/2026

Eight legs… and eight eyes to match.

If you’ve ever felt like a jumping spider was watching you… you’re probably right. There’s something about those eyes that makes them feel a little relatable. They’re also part of what makes them such skilled hunters.

Those four big ones front and center are doing the detailed work—locking in on prey, judging distance, and helping them make those precise little jumps.

But they’re not working alone.

The smaller eyes, including the ones off to the side (like on this cardinal jumping spider in the second photo), are always on the lookout for movement—quietly keeping track of what’s happening all around them.

All of that vision adds up to a pretty effective hunter… even if they come across as more curious than anything else.

04/06/2026

Tucked inside this wine cup bloom, this ligated furrow bee may look like she’s sleeping, but she’s working hard. She’s fast—spinning around collecting pollen, in and out of the bloom in just a few seconds before heading to the next.

As I watch bees, I try to notice their patterns—how they fly, how long they stay at each bloom - she was a 3 second bee😅. It helps me anticipate where they’ll be next and stay with them a little longer. There’s always a lot of luck involved though.

I’m so grateful that our neighbors planted this small strip of wildflowers between their fence and the sidewalk. It’s a lively little mix that draws in all kinds of insect visitors, and it’s become one of my favorite places to take a break from my computer and get lost for a while in whatever’s unfolding there.

03/16/2026

Wasp or Bee?

At first glance, I thought this tiny visitor on a Texas baby blue eyes flower at Zilker Botanical Garden was a wasp. With its smooth body and yellow markings, it certainly looked the part.

But it’s actually a masked bee — a native solitary bee. Unlike most bees that carry pollen on hairy legs or bellies, masked bees swallow pollen and nectar and carry it inside their bodies. Later, they regurgitate it to provision the nursery for their larvae.

They nest in small cavities like hollow stems, lining each chamber with a cellophane-like secretion before sealing an egg inside with its food supply.

I’ve learn a lot about Texas native bees from wildbeesoftexas.com — a wonderful resource.

🐝

03/09/2026

I first noticed the Mexican plum trees at Zilker Botanical Garden by their scent. The fragrance carries surprisingly far, and when I followed it I found the trees full of happy pollinators.

While I was watching the activity around the flowers, this White-lined Sphinx Moth began hovering above the blooms, reaching in with her long proboscis for nectar. In flight, sphinx moths are remarkably agile, able to hover in place and dart quickly from flower to flower — which is why they’re often called “hummingbird moths.”

When I returned the following week with a longer lens, hoping to photograph more insects from a distance, the Mexican plum blossoms were already finished. Their blooming window had already come and gone.

03/06/2026

This Long-tailed Skipper drifted through the blossoms of a Mexican plum tree, the flowers behind it looking almost like little clouds.

The long tails on their hindwings aren’t just decorative. They may help the butterfly survive an attack. The tail often draws a predator’s strike away from the butterfly’s body, and it can tear without seriously harming it. Better to lose part of a wing than the head.

Address

241 N Commons Ford Rd
Austin, TX
78733

Website

https://www.mikageiger.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mika Geiger Photography posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Mika Geiger Photography:

Want your business to be the top-listed Photography Service in Austin?