The Monarchy is in Control!

"The Monarchy"

Okay, this might be the last all-butterfly post for a while, as I don’t want to bore you. However, the Monarchs made me do it;-) Actually, what happened was that last Sunday, it was a tiny bit cooler than it had been, so we took a drive. We had no expectations, we just wanted to get out. We figured we'd see lots of dry grass, and not much else. However, we happened upon a couple of small spots that weren’t dried out yet. We also saw lots of calves (for another time). As we came upon the second little green spot, we suddenly realized there were several Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) flying about. We pulled over, and lo and behold, there were small patches of milkweed on each side. There were about a half-dozen Monarchs flying around, along with other creatures. These are some of their photos, which I hope you enjoy:-)

"Upside Down"

"Connoisseur"

"Magical Monarch"

"Copper Glow"

"Spots!"

I will be adding some of these to our shop. I’d love to know which is your favorite!

Swallowing my Embarrassment

"Tippy Toeing!"

It’s been so long since I’ve done a blog post, that I’ve actually become embarrassed to post again – which has made it become even longer:-\ So, I’m swallowing my embarrassment, and sharing some recent photos. I thought it was only appropriate that my subject be Swallowtail Butterflies:-) I believe these are all Anise Swallowtails, but if not, please let me know – are the females much larger than the males? Anyways, I hope you enjoy these photos, and that you’ll stay tuned for more posts... I promise it won't be so long in between!

"Portrait of a Butterfly"

"Butterfly Light"

"Butterfly Beauty"

"Get a Grip!"

"Glider"

"Hello, Yellow!"

Several of these photos are available in my shop here: Butterfly photos. All of these photos were taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and 55-250mm f4/5.6 lens. I’ve decided that Shutter Priority works best for butterflies, because they’re so fast and erratic, darting in and out of shadows. My main speed is 1250 with ISO 400 – I haven’t played with ISO 800 yet, but I might see how it does noise-wise to see if I can go with a faster shutter speed. I thought hummingbirds were hard to capture, but butterflies have been even more challenging! Love them, though, and these are just a fraction of the photos that I now have.