Is there anyone who isn’t captivated by butterflies?
I was mesmerized as I watched this creature flit about the flowers in our front yard.
The beauty of a butterfly stirs hope in me. If God can turn a creepy caterpillar into winged glory, then surely He can do beautiful things in my life too.
Backyard Bird Nerd 
Wow, beautiful! Raising the bar on photography with smaller more detailed subjects! Same Canon SX50?
These were indeed with the same SX50, although I did get a Canon T3i awhile back. I have been practicing with flowers and some landscape with the new camera, but the old one tends to be in my hands much more frequently.
Beautiful photo! Thanks for sharing!
You are most welcome. 🙂
Wow, those are pristine! My dad and I followed a large butterfly similar to yours for a while the other day, waiting for it to land, but it never did so we moved on without any shots. So that makes me appreciate your pictures even more!
This one tried my patience for awhile! I kept waiting for it to be still long enough for me to focus. 🙂
Great shots!
Thanks!
A beauty that you captured beautifully! Do you know the name of the butterfly?
I think he said his name was Felipe’… 😉 …Actually, I know very little about butterflies, so I’m not sure what type it was. He was a delightful subject to try and photograph though.
I started drawing butterflies last year when I was learning to draw fairy wings. I was amazed to discover the variety of colors and shapes and sizes of butterflies on the internet! 🙂
Beautiful Kathy! I love that even the body of the butterfly has the same markings as the wings, I have not seen this feature before in my past studies in Lepidoptera.
I had never noticed this before either…nor did I know what “Lepidoptera” was until I looked it up! 🙂
Very lovely, Kathy! Thanks for sharing your talent with us. I love how you described the butterfly and how God works on all of us. Nicely done. 🙂
Thanks. 🙂 I had a great time following this fellow around the flowerbed, hoping he would be still long enough to snap off some shots.
And you succeeded. Way to go!
Magnificent macros, Kathy! 🙂
Thanks! It makes me want a macro lens, but for now I’ll use my zoom.
I am amazed when photographers get such beautiful shots of small moving targets.
And I am amazed when someone refers to me as a photographer! 🙂
Beautiful photos and sentiment! My first thought was this was a tiger swallowtail, but upon closer examination of your photos, I don’t believe it is. We have a fabulous butterfly field guide, but it’s up north. 🙂 Have you used the macro setting on the SX50? It actually does a pretty great job if you can get close enough to certain subjects. (Butterflies often make that difficult with their flittering.) I was given the advice by another photographer/blogger to not use zoom when using macro. I’ve gotten a few cool shots of the insides of flowers and such.
I have tried the macro setting for flowers, but tend to use the zoom when the subject is a little less still. I feel like the more pictures I take, the more I realize how much I have no clue what I am doing! But I am having a blast with the learning. 🙂
Funny, that’s exactly how I feel!!! Sometimes I get such a really great shot and think, “wow, I wish I knew how I did that!” LOL It seems the more I “try” the worse my photos are, so I just go with what I’m comfortable with. I meant to ask, what are your impressions of your t3i? I have thought to eventually upgrade to something more “professional” but fear I will be overwhelmed. My brains seems very limited in the amount of technical information it can absorb when it comes to cameras!
I like my t3i for some things – like landscapes and flowers and horses – but the SX50 is what I always use for birds. Mostly because it is so portable, with so much zoom. My lens for the t3i is a 55-250mm. I have lots to learn with both cameras.