On most days when I head out with my camera I’m chasing photos of birds. Occasionally I come back with a photo of a butterfly.
That’s not my goal, but it’s nice when it happens.
That’s the reason why nearly all of these butterfly photos were shot using my “bird set-up”: the Canon EF 600mm f/4L telephoto lens I carry when I'm shooting wildlife. If I run across a butterfly in an interesting setting while I'm shooting wildlife I'll go ahead and get the shot.
It may seem odd shooting “macro" or close-up butterfly images from 15 feet away using a telephoto lens, but it works.
The butterfly I see most often on flowers and in the fields of Central Ohio during the summer months is the monarch. It is unique among butterflies, because it’s the only butterfly that migrates north and south, coming as far north as Canada each summer before returning to Mexico for the winter.
But the monarch’s life span is so short - usually no more than two months for butterflies born in early summer - that no one monarch makes the round-trip migration. Female monarchs deposit eggs during the migration, with the offspring completing the journey.
Credits:
All photos and text © Copyright - Pat D. Hemlepp. All rights reserved.