“There are 365 days in a year and you will meet all the colours of life throughout the year: The blue, the black, the pink… Only blue is not a life, only pink is not a life, only black is not a life! Life is all the colours!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

The outdoors is filled with unexpected gifts. As I set out to photograph the Lady Slipper Orchids last Saturday, that was my only goal. I had no intention of stopping on the way in, nor on my way out of the forest where they grow. I suppose such is the nature of a fixed agenda, no room for anything else.

As those who follow this blog on a regular basis will have noticed, there has been a recent shift from flowers to insects. Fear not, I will continue with flowers as well, but there have been great opportunities presented to photograph some of the local wildlife, primarily insects as well. I photograph because I enjoy being able to share my experiences and learn new things along the way.

One of those learning opportunities occurred when I photographed this “Blue”, or more precisely, a Spring Azure butterfly. These tiny, quick moving, and skittish butterflies are often sitting on the trail, but seldom stick around long enough to photograph. This one was considerate enough to pose on a blade of grass, long enough to get this image, as well as a side shot, which helped me identify it when I got home.

The learning piece of the story comes from having a clear macro image of the butterfly, revealing the fine blue hairs on it’s torso and being able to see the tiny, blue, iridescent scales on its wings, which give it that slightly metallic look. If I had to do it again, I would have narrowed the aperture a bit more, but I was also fighting a breeze that day, which limited me to a higher shutter speed and I did not want to bump the ISO much more.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/500 sec, f/11.0 ISO 400

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