Hive and Home

A beehive, standing in a small area near the local bookstore. For me, it was just a thing of momentary interest. I saw it, it stood out (since it's not everyday that one sees a commercial beehive out an about) and so I snapped a picture of it.

But I recently made the acquaintance of someone who in the bees-for-hire business, and just from looking at the photo on the small screen of my camera, was able to tell which of the local beekeeping companies it belonged to. It never would have occurred to me that one could know that, simply from a photograph with no other identifying features.

But this is, when I think about it, the nature of expertise. After all, there are things that are readily apparent to me that are inscrutable to other people. I am, for the most part, always aware that people around me know things that I don't. But that's different, I realize, from knowing what I don't know. Or, at least, everything that I don't know. And thusly, how much there is out there to learn.