Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Fluttering Monarch

This was from a trip to a local nursury just before Christmas. Santa Barbara is a popular place for them to hang out in the Winter. We actually have a grove of Eucalyptus trees they congregate in. I'd love to go take more shots of them, but the way it's raining right now I don't think I could make it through the mud.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
White Peacock on a Flower

A really little peacock.

Saturday, December 9, 2006
Costa Rican Butterfly Vine

Now there's somthin' ya don't see every day! Well, unless you have one of these vines in your front yard.

This one is growing in a garden center near Santa Barbara. It's pretty wild!

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Basking Monarch

We spent a day in San Luis Obispo last week. It is a fun place to wander around and the weather was great for it. We found this guy while walking the hound by the mission.

Thursday, August 17, 2006
Long-horn Caterpillar

The hound and I were wandering down De La Vina Street today. Only a few steps into our walk I noticed a beautiful orange flower growing by the edge of the sidewalk. When I leaned down to examine it I found a pleasant surprise!

Of course when I saw this guy I suspected that my beautiful flower was actually a weed. But that's ok. On one small plant there were two of these large Monarch caterpillars.

Monarchs dine almost exclusively on Milkweed. It gives them a lovely defense against predators. You see since the Milkweed is poisonous (and tastes terrible to almost anything with the apparent exception of Monarch caterpillars) It makes the caterpillars and resulting butterflies poisonous and taste terrible to just about anything that would try to make a snack of them.

As I was sitting on the sidewalk, watching the caterpillar it was amazing how many people went by (looking at me like I was crazy) and missed such an interesting sight. Of course I guess it is only interesting to crazy photographers like me and other fortunate people with child-like curiosity.

Monday, May 8, 2006
Monarch Chrysalis

We went for another walk today. Along the way we stopped by our neighbor's yard to check on the caterpillar from our Saturday walk, and this is what we found! I thought he looked like he was trying to get comfortable there.

Monday, February 27, 2006
Hiding Heliconian in a Strawberry Tree

This guy thought he had a good hiding place. And actually, he did. I was impressed by how his wings blended with the angle of the leaves. Fortunately, I found him anyway.

Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunning Julia Heliconian Butterfly

Took a while to get him to say cheese! :-D

Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Giant Swallowtail

Interesting lighting in this shot, it almost looks like a flash, but it was just the way the shadows were around the little patch of flowers this guy found.

Thursday, December 29, 2005
Julia Marigold

I like the way he matches the flower, almost like camouflage.

Monday, November 21, 2005
Another point of view

Like yesterday this is another image that was taken at the same time as a completely different looking shot of a similar subject. Although in this case it is not the exact same subject, you can see that changing only the angle and the view in the background give them a completely different feel.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Monarch & Zinnia

I really love the background in this image. It is a bit abstract. And the low aperture that makes the background so interesting made the butterfly's wings just out of focus enough to look like they are fluttering a bit.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Butterfly

I don't think he was actually eating from these flowers, he was just hanging out, literally.

Saturday, October 1, 2005
Zebra on a Flower

I like this shot because the shallow depth of field makes it look like his wings are fluttering.

This guy is the official state butterfly of Florida.

Friday, September 16, 2005
Backlit Monarch

This flower seems to be a favorite of the Monarchs, and this was almost a tree. So, it made it easy to get a great backlit shot.

Thursday, September 15, 2005
Abstract Julia

The filters I use to take my close-ups are a combination of several lenses. This particular combination gives me an extremely low aperture, so there is only a very specific distance that is in focus. In this case only a couple of millimeters.

The effect ends up looking like a painting, especially when enlarged.

Friday, September 9, 2005
White Peacock

Another shot from Wednesday's trip to the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. While we were there we signed up for a year membership that includes the sea center on Stearns Wharf. So that should give me plenty of photo opportunities.

Thursday, September 8, 2005
Julia Heliconian

Yesterday I went back to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. It is almost the end of the butterfly season there. Each year for the past few years they have had a live butterfly exhibit called "Butterflies Alive". Something that is done other places too, but from what I have seen their exhibit is particularly nice.

In addition to getting some shots I am very happy with, I was finally able to identify this guy. He is from Texas or Northern Mexico. And, I found out that it was not that they are not documented well online, it is just that I did not recognize the images on the butterfly sites. Most of the images are taken with the wings stretched out making them look more of a classic butterfly shape. But, with the exception of a few basking in the sun, they seem to rarely hold their wings that way. They have a more stealth appearance in real life.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Basking Butterfly

At one point I knew what kind of butterfly this was. But it's name escapes me at the moment. And, if you have ever searched the Internet for butterflies you know there are about a million different kinds which makes identification a bit difficult.

Saturday, August 27, 2005
Posing Butterfly

This guy was posing so nicely. I particularly like the color of the leaves he is perched on. They go nice with his wings.

Thursday, July 14, 2005
Natural History on the Wing

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has a wonderful exhibit right now called "Butterflies Alive". It is basically a giant tent with thousands of live butterflies in it that you can actually walk through. It's really a great experience!

Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Monarch Motel

This looks like something you would only see on Animal Planet. But Santa Barbara has one of the largest Southern California overwintering spots for the Monarch Butterfly.

Until about a month ago this spot was in serious danger of being turned into multi-million dollar condos. The Friends of the Ellwood Mesa had two years to raise $20.4 million to purchase the 137 acres and turn it into a preserve. An anonymous donation of $307,000 in the last week of the campaign sealed the deal.

The truly amazing thing about these butterflies is none of them have ever been here before. During the summer breeding season Monarchs only live for two to six weeks. So the Butterflies that migrated north last year are long gone (and I bet it was the trip that killed them!) These guys are in a hibernation-like state brought on by the changing weather in the fall. They are lucky, they can live for up to eight months (or unlucky if you think about the 1000+ mile flight they have to make to be safe in the winter.)

The fall generation of Monarchs make the migration from the north, and settle in Eucalyptus groves on the coast of California and in Mexico. They live through the winter before coming out of the hibernation state, called "reproductive diapause", at which time they are ready to usher in the new generation of Monarchs.

Sunday, January 9, 2005
Just Hangin' Out

Every year the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History has a live butterfly exhibit called Butterflies Alive.