Featherless Fliers

Butterflies, naturally.  It's high summer.  Hot, humid and here it's really dry. Thankfully, our perennial wildflowers are surviving without watering.  They are attracting some regular visitors.  Here are a few.

This is a Pearly Crescentspot.  I love the little emerald mark on the top of the thorax.

It's a strong flier and aggressive towards other Crescentspots.  It did not stay long in one place, so getting just one image was a challenge.

I'll make a brief sidetrack from butterflies to dragonflies. I saw this Widow Skimmer making several threatening attacks on smaller butterflies like the above Pearly Crescentspot.

They are a hunter, but I'd not considered butterflies on their list. 

Another nervous butterfly was this Baltimore feeding on a stalk of Yarrow.

One of our most successful plants for attracting butterflies is the Echinacea prupurea, or Purple Coneflower.  The Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, is a frequent visitor.

There are a large number of butterflies in the Skipper family, Hesperiidea.  I failed to conclusively name this one.  Similarly, I mostly failed to follow their erratic flight or focus on most before they moved again.  I got one clear image on a bellflower.

  And, I got one that confronted me on a tiny Coneflower. 

These are all beautiful and engaging, but just about the most anticipated butterfly to our garden is any of the various Swallowtails - big, colorful and strong fliers. This one fed voraciously for so long, that I had over 125 images to select from. Here is the amazing Tiger Swallowtail feeding on the native Monarda fistulosa  in our garden.

This one has been around for a while because it has lost it signature tails.

I love watching how these butterflies twist and turn, sometimes fluttering to reach each nectar tube.

Since I prepared this blog, I spotted another rare visitor to a Coneflower. Fortunately, my camera was setup and waiting for the unexpected.  What could top a Tiger Swallowtail?  The answer is:

Eastern Black Swallowtail !

These swallowtails are really skittish.  I was 8 feet distant, and moved foot closer and the butterfly leaped into flight, circled once and left the property.  Lesson learned.

I'd like to have added a Monarch to this, but they have been impossible to capture before they take off on a long distance flight. It will soon be time for them to be laying eggs on milkweed.  Maybe then.

Paul

Photo Pfun

Took a two hour hike at Tanglewood Nature Center near Elmira this Sunday morning. Did not want to be loaded down with a lot of weight, so I only used my iPhone camera. It's "pfun" to see what can be done with a really simple camera.  The hike would have been an hour, if I  had not discovered so many interesting subjects to photograph.  (I've had some fun editing too, rendering some to pen and watercolor versions.)

Once I got to the steep sidehill portion of the trail, I discovered a lot of fungi. Love the variety.  I think this might be one of the Amanita genus.

Another possible Amanita was nearby. It has the coarse cap surface characteristic of them.

There are two secrets to these photos. First I turn the smart phone upside down so the lens is very low to the ground and second I get very close, usually 5 inches away. Resting the phone on the ground keeps motion to a minimum too.   I know that the closest possible focus distance is 4 inches, and stay close to that limit.  I always want the subject to be a strong element in the composition.

There were other discoveries. This toad was unable to get past a row of logs placed to mark the trail.  After photographing him, I placed him on the other side. The never-smiling face reminds me of a fifth grade teacher that I had; never a smile.

Another nice surprise was the Indian Pipes that are flowering at present.  Lacking chlorophyll, they are essentially colorless.

As I climbed up the steep  hill towards the parking lot, I came upon the first meadow and found a nice Swallowtail Butterfly.  Moving slowing, I was able to inch to within inches of it before it chose to fly away.  Aren't they beautiful?

This worked out to be a nice hike.  I was not loaded down with a heavy camera, and there were plenty of reasons to pause along the way and avoid overheating.

This outing explains the popularity of the smart phone camera.  It is always with me, and it is "good enough" when I stay within the limits of a wide angle lens.  The two keys are to get close and to pick locations with good light that is out of the direct sunlight. I can't do large prints nor reach out to skittish animals, or photograph birds in flight.  But often, it is "good enough" and using it builds my skills.

Paul Schmitt

Sometimes a simple camera will do..

I am excited at the prospect of a full class tomorrow for my first workshop on smart phone photography. Preparing for the class has really advanced my understanding and skill with this minimal camera.  I am at times amazed at what this iPhone4 will produce and only hope I can inspire others to explore their possibilities with the smart phone camera.

So, in finalizing the material this morning, I needed a few more photos and did not have time to go further than my backyard.  I chanced upon a very bold Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on the coneflowers. With some editing on the computer, I achieved two reasonable image of one of my favorite butterflies. I was only about 5 to 6 inches from the subject!

The nectar must have been powerfully sweet to overcome the butterfly's aversion to people.

I only hope that I can cover 16 people when we are in the herb garden at Cornell Plantations.

Regards,

Paul Schmitt