Sunday, August 7, 2011

A successful photo shoot.........


My very first photo of the swallowtail was unsuccessful as my straw hat scared it away.  My camera snapped and it was gone.



Once I had removed my hat and once it started to get into the nectar of the zinnia, there was not much that I could do to scare it anymore.  It was hungry and it was busy eating and I just snapped many photos.


The butterfly even changed flowers while I was standing there and didn't mind me holding a camera ten inches away from it.


It is nice that it moved around as I was able to get different backgrounds each move.


Just like the monarch, it moves it's wings in and out while it is collecting nectar.  I had to time my clicks with the movements of it's opening and closing.

A monarch joined in on the feeding frenzy and I will share those photos later.  I had 55 photos from that shoot and I continued working in the area and it stayed in the flower bed the entire time.

I took a photo of the same kind of butterfly last year and it too had one of it's back parts of it's wing broken off.  The wind and the weather must be hard on them.

Thanks for stopping by............cooler but still muggy here today.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing these pretty butterfly/zinnia pictures. We have had very few butterflies this year.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

The eastern yellow swallowtail is one of my favorite butterflies Larry. It's always sad to see their wings tattered and broken.

A Brit in Tennessee said...

Splendid shots of the Swallowtail Larry, they're not the easiest to keep in one spot !
I just love your Zinnias so very pretty.
~Jo

Far Side of Fifty said...

Beautiful photos! I have yet to see a Swallowtail this year..maybe they are all in Iowa:)