Wings
War Bonnet
The attention-grabbing, bold color and contrast on this small butterfly’s wings are clearly a work of God’s design and creativity.
Last month, during a trip to the Branson, Missouri area I spent a couple of hours at the Butterfly Palace. They have a variety of winged creatures flitting around their man-made tropical environment. When in the area, I try to make my way there because I’m always sure to get some worthwhile images.
The detail in this butterfly’s wings is amazing. You can get a better view by clicking on the photo.
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Designer Dots
The seven dots adorning this large butterfly caught my eye while studying the amazing winged creatures at the Butterfly Palace in Branson, MO.
I have no idea what kind of butterfly this is. It might be easier to identify if I had a photo of the upper side of the wings. Most identification guides seem to show the butterflies with wings open.
You can view a larger, full-screen version of this image by clicking on the photo.
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Beauty by Design
This colorful butterfly took some time to rest and feed on the sedum plants in our flower bed.
I’m always intrigued and impressed by the color and patterns in nature. Surely, any reasonable person can see, there is a master designer. One of the interesting aspects of seeing a butterfly this close is noticing the presence of hair on their back. You don’t really notice that when they are flitting about the flowers.
I’m not exactly sure what kind of butterfly this is. I spent some time trying to find another butterfly with similar color and patterns on the wings, but I was unable to spot one in my Google search. If you can identify this butterfly, I’d be interested in knowing.
You can get a larger, more detailed view of this image by clicking on it.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Dark Damsel
The dainty damselfly is a predator by nature. Damselflies catch and eat flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects. Often they hover among grasses and low vegetation, picking prey off stems and leaves with their spiny legs.
I think the best part of this image is the detailed pattern and color in the wings. I also like the tiny spines on the legs.
This dark damsel paused just long enough for me to catch a good photo. They tend to zip to and fro and make focusing a challenge. I saw this one on a walk through some woods in Missouri. I had to shoot through the leaves to grab this image. I would have preferred the leaf in the foreground wasn’t there so you could see the structure of all the legs, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.
To enjoy the details available in this image, click on the photo and a full-screen version will open in a new browser tab.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Cool Dude
A macro view of a cool dragon fly resting on the buds of a hosta plant in our flower bed. Those eyes remind me of aviator glasses. Seems like there should be a cigarette loosely dangling from his mouth.
You can get a better, more detailed view of this creature by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Dead Leaf Butterfly – Open
This is the colorful side of the Dead Leaf Butterfly. The coloring and marking on the upper side of their wings is dramatically different from the bottom side of the wings.
When the wings are folded up, this butterfly looks just like a brown, dried leaf. Its camouflage is very convincing. (See my previous post – Dead Leaf Butterfly) As you can see in this photo, when the Dead Leaf Butterfly opens its wings, it becomes an attractive, exotic beauty.
The Dead Leaf Butterfly is a nymphalid butterfly found in tropical Asia from India to Japan.
You can get a better view of the detail in this colorful side of the Dead Leaf by looking at the larger version; available by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Dead Leaf Butterfly
Look closely or you’ll miss it. At first glance, this appears to be a leaf but, wait…it has legs and antennae! This is the cleverly disguised Dead Leaf Butterfly (Kallima inachus), sometimes called Orange Oakleaf.
When its wings are closed, it looks like a dried leaf. This incredibly effective, natural camouflage helps it avoid predators. When open, its wings are predominately a bluish-black with striking orange markings. In my next post, I’ll give you a view of this same butterfly with it’s wings open.
This cool creature is a nymphalid butterfly found in tropical Asia from India to Japan.
You can get a better view of the detail in this wing by looking at the larger version; available by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Angel Forlorn
I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the expression on this angelic sculpture. One moment it strikes me as uncaring, the next deeply compassionate. As you can see from the title, I settled on forlorn. Maybe the title reveals more of my own feelings about the setting than the statue, itself.
I found this angel in a dark recess among the complex, eclectic collections found at House On the Rock – a notable Wisconsin tourist attraction. We visited this attraction of oddities last August. I took a lot of photos, as you would expect, despite it’s unusually dark atmosphere. There is so much to see there, and yet, they seem to want to make viewing difficult and photography near impossible.
As a photographer, there was a lot at House On the Rock to grab your eye…and frustrate your technique. Setting my camera aside and looking at it as a common tourist, I did not like the place. It was all too dark, dreary, strange, unkempt and macabre for me. My favorite parts were the gardens outside the buildings, where there was sunshine and life, paths and ponds, goldfish and waterlilies, flowers and honey bees. The dark, cavernous, foreboding nature of the indoors is such a shame because there are so many very cool items in this gigantic and wildly diverse collection.
Twenty years ago, American novelist, Jane Smiley, offered her thoughts after a visit to House On the Rock. I think her description remains accurate today…
Though most people outside of the Midwest have never heard of it, the House on the Rock is said to draw more visitors every year than any other spot in Wisconsin. …it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the House on the Rock. The sheer abundance of objects is impressive, and the warmth most of the objects exude, the way that the toys ask to be played with, for example, makes the displays inherently inviting. But almost from the beginning, it is too much. The house itself is dusty. Windowpanes are cracked. Books are water damaged. The collections seem disordered, not curated. In fact, there is no effort to explore the objects as cultural artifacts, or to use them to educate the passing hordes. If there were informative cards, it would be impossible to read them in the dark. Everything is simply massed together, and Alex Jordan comes to seem like the manifestation of pure American acquisitiveness, and acquisitiveness of a strangely boyish kind, as if he had finalized all his desires in childhood and never grown into any others.
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Buzz By Here – To Infinity and Beyond!
This portly bumble bee looks as though he’s heading off past the flowers, into infinity, intent on some important bee mission. No doubt, for his honey. (You’ve got to award style points for that perfect form.)
If you have a decent sized monitor, you can get a better view of Buzz by clicking on the photo.