(no subject)

[thewingedword]

While I was on vacation, I went to a cool butterfly house, and managed to get some decent pictures using the Digital Macro function on my camera. Here are a few of my favorites.

I think that above picture is my very favorite. The color and texture contrasts are cool. If you want to skip ahead, my very favorite butterfly is at the very bottom.



We got a sheet of names and pictures when we went in, and I remember this species was called the Grey Pansy. This particular butterfly is very young; its wings are completely whole, bright and undamaged.



This one is obviously quite a bit older, and probably only has a day or so to live. I got a few pictures of this species because it tended to hold still. 



I really love the pattern of the wings. It reminds me of owls.



This one I love because it came out perfectly in focus, which is difficult with Digital Macro. In the superhuge fullsize version you can see that this butterfly's wings are textured like very fine corduroy, rather than the more common feathery texture. I am such a geek.



This is just a Monarch, we get them a lot around here, so they don't have quite the exotic glamour. But my mother likes them, so I took a picture.



This picture, of course, focused on the very corner of the wing and nothing else. I was actually holding the camera only a couple of inches away from the butterflies; they were used to humans, and mostly didn't move, so it was very cool.



If you look, you can see its little proboscis going into the flower. It's kind of defying gravity by hanging there, too. I'm not a huge insect person, but I'm a science dork in general, so it works for me.



This is one of the Blue Morpho butterflies, with lovely iridescent blue inner-wings. Assumedly for camoflage reasons, they keep their wings shut when they're not actively flying, and are therefore a bitch to photograph. Also, they prefer to just sit around on the ground and the benches, so I kept nearly sitting on/stepping on the little buggers.



I hovered over one of them and took about a billion pictures of just-closed wings before I got this rather blurry shot.



This one is very old and has part of its wing ripped off, so you can see the color on the inside of the other wing. Also, it doesn't look a damned thing like the first Blue Morpho picture I posted, so I'm not sure about that one anymore. Heh.



Okay, this picture isn't as cool as the others, so I hesitated over posting it. But the little butterfly is really really cute, I am such a sucker.



Finch! They had a little birdfeeder with this finch, and I love finches, and we already covered the I'm a sucker part. 



Finally, another picture that's cool and not just a waste of your time. This was my favorite butterfly, the Ricepaper butterfly from somewhere in Asia. Its chrysalis is, for some reason, a very bright metallic gold. The wings are like fine china, you can see the pattern of the other wing through it. I love its white face with the big black eyes; it looks very painted, like stage makeup.

So I am actually kind of proud of how these turned out. Like I said, I'm not a huge insect person, but butterfly houses are special and we don't have any this cool right around here.

Comments

[marielyuy.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, beautiful pictures! I like butterflies so I enjoyed this post immensely. I like the ones with the blue-inside wings.

[kitaloon.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and I'm glad you like the pictures! Those butterflies were my favorite as well, they were just so much harder to photograph. GRR.

[sporkishfiend.livejournal.com]

Oooh, very nice pictures, Kit! Butterflies are so pretty. :)

[kitaloon.livejournal.com]

And it was all due to my utterly fantastic camera, which some very wise woman recommended to me. *winks*

[sporkishfiend.livejournal.com]

Oh, pshaw! It's only a channel for talent. :)

[artyrose.livejournal.com]

Those pictures are stunning. I love the first! Do you mind if I use the first picture for a cover of one of my binders for school?

[kitaloon.livejournal.com]

Of course I don't! I can even give you a higher-res version if you want, photobucket shrunk the picture down. Just give me your e-mail or some way to send it to you.

[artyrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks! My email is ldschick777258@yahoo.com