Swallowtail

I had a great, unexpected photography experience a few weeks ago. I came out of the grocery store to find a beautiful swallowtail butterfly walking across the parking lot near my vehicle. I stood and admired it for a bit, noticing that it didn't seem to be able to fly. I put my hand down onto the ground and it climbed aboard so I decided to take it home with me. I put him down on the passenger seat and headed home. When we arrived (at this point I found him inside my purse, lol) I placed him in the shade on one of the irises in my iris garden. For the next day and a half I photographed him in the garden, watching for changes in the light, moving him to different flowers, using different lenses, angles and points of view, really working the situation. I knew this was a rare opportunity. Around mid-morning on the second day he was gone when I went out to the garden. I like to think that he gained the strength he needed during his visit with me to continue on his journey. I made over 350 images while he was here, I'll attach a few samples (all of these were made with the Lensbaby 2.0 and macro kit).

The moral of my story is to grab shooting opportunities when they appear and to really work them!

Kathleen