Camera Critters #211

I can finally say spring has arrived on the High Desert.  While out on a photo safari Friday, I noticed my first butterfly sighting.  It was a beautiful Mourning Cloak.  As I approached it to get a photo, I saw another, different butterfly flit past me.
At the same time, the Mourning Cloak too off and I turned my attention to the new arrival, which had landed not far from me.

When I took the image above, my mind was saying anglewing, as I have photographed similar leps in the general area this image was taken.
However, when I showed the image to Misty, the meme’s founder and owner, she mentioned it looked like one of the punctuation butterflies.
After a discussion, I realized that she was correct.  The butterfly I photographed was not an anglewing, but instead, a Hoary Comma.
Although they look similar (see this image), the obvious difference is in the wing at the base where it meets the body.  On the butterfly above, the wing is basically straight across with a very slight angle.  The butterfly at the link has an obvious angle at that point.  Hence the name anglewing.
Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #196

Several years ago, I was walking off trail, along the east wall of the dry canyon near me.  My eyes caught sight of a Sara Orangetip butterfly.  I had been chasing them for two years, and was hoping this was my opportunity to get an image of one.

But as I approached the Lepidoptera, my attention was drawn to a butterfly I had never seen.  I immediately switched gears and turned my attention to this new bug.

Later, I was able to identify the critter as a Zephyr Anglewing.  And so began a quest which continues to this day…photographing as many anglewings as possible.

In the photos below, the first image shows the butterfly with wings closed, the second partially opened and the rest full open.  Note the variations of markings in the critters.

 

For those who have followed my posts from the beginning, you might have seen these images before.  But the butterfly is beautiful, it deserves to be seen again.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #195

After I added butterflies to “shoot list,” I began seeing all sorts of Lepidoptera, some I never knew existed.

One day in the Juniper badlands east of town, I came across one I had not seen before. It was white, with golden yellow veins. So I headed over to image it…but it flew before I could get in position. At that point the chase began.

The chase didn’t last long, as I found out the butterfly can fly a bit faster than I can run, and easily disappears when it wants.

Several weeks later, the opportunity presented itself again when I spotted a golden-veined, white butterfly off in the distance. Once again, the chase didn’t last long.

However, this time it was a successful chase. I got the photo I wanted of the white butterfly with golden veins. That butterfly is the Becker’s White.

As you can see, since then I have photographed a number of Becker’s Whites. I have even learned to recognize them from a distance just by their flying characteristics. Knowing nature sure is fun.

Have a wonderful new year everyone!

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critter #194

As a kid, there were two kinds of butterflies I remember.  The Monarch Butterfly and the Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly. 

For the longest time, those were the only ones I knew.  Then along came white butterflies and yellow butterflies.  However, I still wasn’t paying much attention to the Lepidoptera around me.

Then, a number of years ago, I began photographing the little flying creatures.  It didn’t take me long to realize there were a lot more colorful butterflies than I had previous thought.

One of my favorites these days are the blues.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #188

Last week, I showed you photos of purple wildflowers with critters on them.

This week, it the most common wildflower color in the high desert, and of course, with critters on them – yellow.

I had a few more photos of yellow wildflowers with critters, but the critters just weren’t all that interesting.  I do hope you enjoyed this smaller sampling.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critter #187

Being in a desert style climate, the major color I see here during my photo safaris is brown.  Weeds dry out quickly under the intense sun we get here.

But I also see other colors.  Yellow is very common.  And so is the color these eight critters are checking out.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #177

A couple of Camera Critters ago, I showed y’all a Dotted Blue butterfly.  It has markings similar to a variety of small blue Lepidoptera found in my area.  In case you have forgotten, here is the Dotted Blue again.

I always try to photograph these little leps whenever I can.

Several weeks ago, I was going through some of my photos and noticed one I had forgotten about (I take a lot of photos and have a limited memory  8v).  I looked at the image and my first thought was, "I did image a Dotted Blue before.”

Then I looked closer at the butterfly and saw the outer fringes of the wings are not dark in any part of the fringes.  I also noticed the dominate outline of the wings.  I had read before about a blue butterfly in the west which has evenly colored fringes.  It’s a Rita’s Blue.

However, a Rita’s Blue is not found in this area.  I’ve checked a number of different blue butterflies, and find nothing to match, except the Dotted Blue.  That means I did photograph one before the one above.  See for yourself and if you know a definitive identity of it, let me know.

 

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #175

I have travelled to an area near here a number of times to see what new critters are there.  Generally, I see what I saw on my first trip to Lower Bridge.

However a trip Wednesday produced two new butterflies for the area…and a new lifer butterfly for me.

The first is a Lorquin's Admiral.  I have come across this butterfly in different areas, mainly up in the mountains.  It was a nice treat to find one in the Deschutes River canyon area.

Yes…that is my finger.  I was attempting to get the butterfly to climb aboard, and just as I got close enough, I began to slip on the loose gravel I was standing on.  The quick movement of me attempting to regain balance caused the admiral to fly off.

Not long after I came across the admiral, I noticed a small blue butterfly quickly flitting about.  I tried to follow it to get a shot, but lost sight of it.  So I went back to the admiral.  After getting a number of new shots of the admiral, I began to walk the trail.

Whenever I walk the wilds here, I am constantly scanning my surroundings, looking for good subjects.  As I scanned to my left, something just didn’t look right, so I walked over to investigate.

There he was…the blue butterfly I was chasing before.  I lifted my camera and began shooting as I approached the plant it was on.  I got a couple of shots off before the blue butterfly took flight.

When I got home, I checked the images, I realized I got me a new Lepidoptera.  Called a Dotted Blue, there are five different subspecies of this critter.  This one might be the subspecies enoptes, but it could also be columbiae, which is more common in my area.  However, I couldn’t find a photo of that subspecies to verify.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critter #170

One of my goals when I went eastward was to photograph as many new critters as I could.  Well, I didn’t see all that many, but the ones I did see, for the most part, allowed me time to image them.

A good example is my post two weeks ago of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

Well, on one of my last days in Illinois, I went to the Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve.  Wandering the paths of the park, I found a few good subjects.

One was this American Copper.

I was rather pleased to come across this butterfly.  I see coppers here, but not this species.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critters #168

When I was back east, I was looking forward to imaging new critters.  I have shown some of them here in the past couple of weeks, so here's another.

I was walking along the road in front of my mother's place when an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail fluttered by and landed near a trashed soda can.  It spent a few minutes there, with me waiting for it to move off so I could get a more natural photo.

But before it flew off, never to be seen again, I did manage to get a few shots.  This is the best.

Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.

Camera Critter #66

The past year has been a good one for swallowtails in my yard. Late last year, I captured images of an Oregon Old World Swallowtail (see my CCM #56 post) visiting one of the many flower in the backyard. A couple of months ago, I was able to get images of a Twin-tailed Swallowtail. Both of those shots were lucky ones, as I had the camera in hand when they arrived. But I have also had a lot of missed opportunities. By the time I see them and get my camera, they are gone.

Then, a couple of days ago, I was walking through the backyard, when another swallowtail flew past me and landed on a nearby flower. I ran back to my apartment to get my camera and by the time I returned, the butterfly had moved to the Apple Tree. I was able to get a couple of shots off before it took to the wind and disappeared off in the distance. After checking the photo on the computer, I realized I had taken a photo of a Western Tiger Swallowtail...my first one. Since getting this photo, I've been hoping to see it return so I can improve on the photo with a wings open shot.

Western Tiger Swallowtail

Then Thursday, I was sitting on the bench under the Apple Tree enjoying my morning cup of coffee when I noticed a large, yellow butterfly heading my way. I grabbed my camera, which I had brought out with me just in case, and headed towards the bug. It then landed five feet from me on a flowering plant and opened its wings for a perfect image. Thinking it was the same critter as I photographed in the Apple Tree a couple of days earlier, I went back to the computer, uploaded the shots and discovered I had once again photographed, not the Western Tiger Swallowtail I was hoping for, but yet another Twin-tailed Swallowtail.

Twin-tailed Swallowtail

It's is still a good butterfly image, but not the wings open shot of the Western Tiger Swallowtail I was hoping for.

Misty Dawn's Camera Critter Meme is a great way to see critters of all types. Go to the Meme homepage here and check out more entries. Then join the fun and let the world see your critters!

An Outstanding Year of Camera Critters!

A little more than 52 weeks ago, a good friend of mine asked me a question.

"I'm thinking of starting a photo meme called Camera Critters Sunday. What do you think of the idea?"

I said, "I love it."

Well, 52 weeks ago, the first Camera Critter page opened. My first post(located here) was that of a lizard. So with this being the first anniversary of Misty Dawn's Camera Critters, I thought I would reverse the calendar and go back one year from the first appearance of the meme and present the photos shot on the day closest to the beginning one year before the start.

So...here are the photos I shot two years ago.


The California Tortiseshell is fairly common on the high desert. And 2007, was bumper year for the butterfly as thousands were seen throughout the area.

I had seen Mourning Cloaks before on the high desert, but had never been able to get a good photo of one. As I wandered along the Dry Canyon Trail in Redmond, I noticed the above butterfly in the distance and took off after it. It remained long enough for me to get this shot, then flew.

Another common Spring butterfly on the high desert and along the Dry Canyon Trail, is the Zephyr Anglewing. In 2007, I became very fond of this lepidoptera and was able to photo a nice variety before they disappeared for the year.

As I began my return trip home, I sat on a large chunk of basaltic lava to eat a snack. While I was munching on some cheese cubes, another Mourning Cloak landed right in front of me. He was even nice enough to open his wings for this portrait.

Finally, as I was nearing the stairs to leave the canyon, I found this mound of busy ants. They were too busy doing what they do best to worry about me, so I watched them for a few moments, took a few photos of their activities and headed home.

I hope you enjoyed my post this week. If you would like to see more Camera Critters, just drop by the website here run by Misty Dawn and then join in the fun with an entry of your own.

Camera Critter Meme #24

For this week's Camera Critter Meme, I thought I would pass on my favorite way to shoot when I go out. I didn't start shooting this way, but I have come to rely on it every chance I get. When I began shooting the smaller forms of wildlife where I live, I would stick my camera on Aperture Priority, the lens on f/8, the ISO at 200 and proceed to shoot to my heart's content. I was pleased with the results and continued shooting that way until...

Early last year, I read an article in a photography magazine which got me thinking. The author mentioned that in the studio, he always shot using manual settings based on the lighting around the subject. Most studio photographers shoot that way. But it was his usage of manual settings which caught my interest. I then refreshed my memory on manual shooting which was a style of shooting I used during my film days, grabbed my camera, set it up using the Sunny 16 Rule and off I went to my favorite shooting site, Dry Canyon Trail of Redmond, Oregon.

I came across a number of subjects to test my new style of shooting on and began snapping away. I shot the entire time with my camera set using the big "M" settings and never touched the dials all day. When I came home and looked at my photos, my eyes popped out. The contrast and colors were vivid and gorgeous, better than I thought my camera could accomplish. I was suddenly very sold on using Manual settings as often as possible.

California Tortoiseshell

Zephyr Anglewing

I set the camera initially with settings of ISO 200, Shutter Speed of 1/200 and aperture of f/16. I then turned the shutter speed to 1/400 a second which is a good quick speed, and increased the aperture to f/10 which was the same number of clicks I adjusted the shutter speed. The photos, as I mentioned before, were spectacular. Today, I shoot at ISO 100, a shutter speed of 1/400 and with an aperture of f/8 (which is the sweet spot aperture for the lens I shoot with). My camera is set to adjust exposure in one third increments, which differs from the listed settings in the charts below. However, following the suggested guidelines as mentioned below will provide similar results to my photos above.

More information on the Sunny 16 Rule can be found at the site linked above, or here:

For those interested, more in depth information on manual exposure can be found here and here:

Camera Critter Sunday No. 6

I like to tell people when they see me with my camera, that I shoot anything that flies, crawls or walks on more four legs or more. And I do...

I don't shoot people, but I shoot birds, bugs, butterflies, bees, beetles and many other things, including aircraft.

But this is a Camera Critter Meme and I gots lots of critters I can highlight.

Today, however, I am going with a butterfly. It is one my favorite butterfly shots. It is called a California Tortoiseshell and is common in the high desert of central Oregon. I hope you like.