More Butterflies

I’ve become mildly obsessed with butterflies. As a member of the Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, I can go to these early morning. tripod photographer sessions before the pavilion actually opens, and it is awesome. I bought a 50 mm prime lens just for this occasion. While I see a HUGE improvement in the quality of the picture, I still don’t know exactly how to focus. I’m obsessed with butterfly eyes and proboscises, so that’s where I tend to focus, but then their wings get a bit fuzzy. And I still don’t get the point of using a tripod. Or maybe I’m just too lazy.

Well, without further ado, here’s some butterflies that I didn’t get very interesting pictures of, but they’re amazing in their colors.

And rare, apparently–an older woman pointed out the multicolored one to me and then told me that they don’t get those kinds in very often and that she should know because she goes there more than ANYONE ELSE. And I believed her.

Others that seemed rare. Or at least, I saw fewer of these:

(I’m not sure how I feel about all those fuzzy bodies.)

I remain obsessed with morphos. When their wings are open, morphos are an amazingly blue color. But I love the patterns on their closed wings.

And, really, you cannot beat their striped eyes.

I remain obsessed with white monarchs.

And, oh hell, these mostly white butterflies are pretty rad. They may look the same, but check out the different spots.

And check out THIS GUY:

Speaking of which, it is really rad to watch butterflies feed.

( I like that you can see the reflection of the flower in that one.)

Or even about to feed:

ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY HAVE A FREAKING RED PROBOSCIS.

This brown butterfly was happy to pose head on

or in profile

or upside-down.

But my favorite of all are these green guys, who look like this when their wings are open

and like this when their wings are closed.

THEIR EYES!