Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
I’m not a “bug guy” so rather than a butterfly, I suppose this could be a moth but it was pretty darned cool looking. I spotted it during a walk through my wife’s flower gardens recently as it flew from bloom to bloom. My Canon EOS R5 coupled with an older Canon EF 100 L macro lens captured the little guy quite nicely.
Edit: I have been informed this is indeed a butterfly, one of the “skipper” family.
I have bragged before about the beautiful job my wife did over a period of three years turning much of our backyard into an oasis for us as well as birds and insects.
After being out of town for much of a week, I desperately needed to catch up on yardwork yesterday so I skipped my usual photo excursion. After much of the work was done though, I broke out the camera and spent some time in the yard photographing some of the cool visitors.
Among them, a cabbage white butterfly, a young broad-tailed hummingbird, a European paper wasp and an orange-belted bumblebee. It was late morning by the time I took these and the light was kind of harsh but fun stuff to see no matter the time of day.
Much of the work was done thanks to Thornton Water Conservation and is a certified National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat.
Sometimes you don’t have to go far for a photo op.
One evening last week my wife and I were sitting on the patio when I saw this huge butterfly circling. I was happy to see the eastern tiger swallowtail settle in at one of our flowerbeds so I rushed inside to grab my camera. I managed a few good pics of it as it hopped from flower to flower.
It was a pretty impressive looking thing and had a wingspan of probably four inches or so. Kind of fun and best of all I didn’t have to go anywhere to get pics. 😉
Two weeks ago these very pretty butterflies began appearing along the Colorado Front Range. They are working their way south toward warmer environs and their winter residences. Up until this past week I hadn’t seen one in my area and I was pretty annoyed.
Then, on Tuesday, I come home and find our miniature rose bushes covered with them. Needless to say I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of pictures of them. I don’t own a true macro lens to do them justice but it was fun to play with a subject right in my front yard.
Colorado’s high country experienced above average snowfall this past winter and has had a relatively wet spring and summer. That has allowed the mountain landscape to be greener and more lush than in recent years and provided an abundance of flora. This little butterfly was taking advantage of the greenery in Colorado State Forest this past week.
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