Catching photos of birds and bugs often requires a steady hand and a lot of patience, but a new gadget made for the backyard could just make the process automatic.
Ask someone who love photography: macros of bugs and bees and butterflies and birds are great, but you need plenty of patience and a really solid camera setup to make those shots count.
We’ve been able to capture photos up close of bees in the past, and of other animals, too, but when technology can assist, we’re all for it.
Over at CES 2025, technology appears suited to do just that, as a company famed for a hummingbird feeder camera looks ready to let people capture photos of bees and butterflies and other insects using a combination of cameras, solar panels, smarts, and building blocks.
The company in question, Wonder, will launch two gadgets designed to do just that.
Petal is a camera on a flexible stem built to hold onto tree branches, capable of connecting to an optional solar panel and connecting to a layer of AI to snap photos of animals up close.
You’ll need the camera in a position to work, but when bugs are in its line of site, artificial intelligence will let it work out there’s a photo worth capturing.
Meanwhile, there’s also Wonder Blocks, a modular system to create homes for insects, such as a small hive for bees, plants, a seed tray, and a butterfly feeder, with the Petal camera able to be tied to the Wonder Blocks to create a system built to capture what’s going on in bug and butterfly worlds.
The concept is creative, and could mean you can skip needing to grab the macro lens and a dose of patience if you want to capture a shot of your backyard bees next time.
Wonder notes that while there’s no official release date yet, Petal and Wonder Blocks (which sounds like a band name) will be launched on Kickstarter in the coming months.
