02-25-10 Dark Beauty

I have been "dusting off" some old photos and this is one I took a few years ago at the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, SD. I'm not sure you can see it here, but there is blue speckling this butterfly's wings which is anything but random. Part of the disguise? Part of the reproductive game? I don't know much about butterflies but the more I look, the more I marvel. Here's another one from the same day.

Incidentally, did you know that if you click on the picture displayed when you first go to a page in my blog, you get a bigger view of the same photo? In fact, most of these photos are uploaded at a resolution of 1680x1050, which is pretty big. I hope you have a good connection?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

09-02-09 Amazing Art 02

Here's another one from my trip several years ago to the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. I wish I knew more about butterflies. Perhaps someone looking at this knows the name of this species?

One thing a remember about my trip to the Butterfly House is that the volunteer docent who followed me around was careful to point out butterflies that were fairly young, since older butterflies often have damaged wings. This is another example of the word "ephemeral," which I used in an earlier post to talk about sunlight. Canon 1D 1/800s f/3.5 ISO500 70mm Some rights reserved under Creative Commons Copyright

09-01-09 Amazing Art 01

By Scott Shephard

View fullsize

What humans create often pales compared to what Nature creates. Consider the butterfly, for example. The threatening eye's on this butterfly's wing appear to have been painted there. But, of course, they weren't. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

This photo was taken at the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. If you have a chance to visit, you should. It might be worth going at the time reserved for photographers. The day I visited, there was a 5th grade class there - it wasn't exactly relaxing for me or the butterflies.

Canon 1D 1/160s f/3.5 ISO500 200mm Some rights reserved under Creative Commons Copyright

06-13-09 Swallow Tail and Lavender

I thought I'd balance my rather somber cemetery photo from yesterday with something a little less heavy. So how about a butterfly perched on some lavender?

This photo was taken on the island of Hvar, just off the coast of Croatia. Deb pointed out the butterfly and told me it wasn't "just" another butterfly but that it was a swallow tail. She says it was the third one she'd ever seen. I guess it's my first one. Hvar Island, incidentally, is one of the world's largest producers of lavender. I have seen lavender before - but not fields of it like I've seen here.

Click here for more photos of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.