Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Butterfly Photography

Since both my husband and I enjoy photography, we celebrated Valentine’s by registering for a special after-hours photography session at Tucson Botanical Gardens.

This event allowed only five photographers admission to the tropical Butterfly Magic exhibit with all our equipment—cameras, lights, tripods, and so on. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to take our time without bothering other people with our gear or, to be honest, worrying about other visitors getting in our way.

The following are just a few of the hundreds of photos I took.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved
Tiger Longwing (Heliconius hecale). Range: Mexico to the Peruvian Amazon.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved
Ruby-spotted Swallowtail (Papilio anchisiades). Range: south Texas south to Argentina.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved
Julia Longwing (Dryas Julia). Range: southern areas of the U.S.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved
Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia). Range: extreme southern portions of the United States southward through Mexico, Central America and the West Indies to South America.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved
Atlas (Attacus atlas). Range: Southeast Asia.

This Atlas moth was a unique visitor to the exhibit. According to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Atlas belongs to the giant silk moths family, Saturniidae. Wikipedia cites a moth as “an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera”.

We’re still enjoying viewing each other’s photos and working together to identify each butterfly found. What a perfect Valentine gift for us.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful!

Kristie said...

Beautiful shots, June!

Anonymous said...

Truely amazing shots June. So many to treasure.

Anonymous said...

WHat a lovely way to spend Valentines Day sharing something you both enjoy so much. What beautiful butterflies.

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

What a treat to spend the day doing something you love with someone you love! Your photographs are all beautiful! I think the Atlas moth is my favorite one....it's so unusual.

Thimbleanna said...

What beautiful pictures June! What kind of lights does one take to something like that? Are they battery operated or something? Inquiring minds...

shenry said...

Man, I want to do something like that. Those photos are awesome. The one of the moth is my fav.

Lena said...

These photos are so pretty June. I love butterflies, and butterfly exhibits are so magical I think. When I visited the one at our zoo, I almost felt as if I'd entered the world of fairies, and wished I had some little ones with me, to enjoy it.

All my best,
Lena