Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Mostly when I’m photographing insects, or animals of any kind, I’m mostly interested in getting a sharp image, in focus, without blurring from movement, with plenty of depth of field, etc. I don’t always achieve it, but that’s what I’m aiming for. Sort of the field-guide-type photograph. Something that will show you all the distinguishing features of the creature.
This time, though, I was trying to capture the essence of butterfly-ness and I think I’ve done a halfway decent job of it. If you’ve ever followed a butterfly from bush to bush, trying to get close enough for a picture, trying to get it at the right angle, with the sun behind you, without a lot of hard, man-made objects in the picture, you know how mobile they are. Their wings are often a blur, as they move around on an individual flower, to say nothing of when the take off and flit to another flower, just around the back of the bush and out of sight. This, I believe, is a lot of what it is to be a butterfly.