LIGHT AND COLORS THROUGH BUTTERFLY WINGS - for the Butterfly Day and Insect Day Giveaway- Week 44
On the following photograph, taken last summer on the bushes bordering the meadow ...
... you can see a mating pair of Marsh fritillary butterflies (Euphydryas aurinia) on the Honeysuckle flowers. The soft morning sunlight is accentuating the warm shades of orange on their wings, making them partially translucent and setting the gentle, warm tone of the whole picture ... but just a few seconds before ...
... thanks to a small, dissolving wisp of cloud, passing somewhere high above the scene ... the tone of the picture was noticeably colder, less exuberant ... the photograph is actually a bit dull. This small changes, while photographing the tiny elegant fragments of the great spectacle that nature is, are for me the most exiting part of all that process ... from finding the subject to the small final touches in photoshop, this immersion in the flow of light while searching for an angle and some composition in what you see, is some sort of meditation and mentally, really takes you somewhere pretty far away from your usual place.
Another shot ... taken soon after the first one of the post ... the same sunny atmosphere ... but the slight movement of butterflies, makes both of them visible ... the shots are almost the same ... but still each one has something to reveal ... and then ...
... the movement of the camera ... completely changes the background ... the butterflies spread their wings a bit more ... the wings are almost completely translucent now and the result - is a much different atmosphere from those three that preceded it ... looks a bit like a studio shot, with white background.
And now is clear :) that this post is more about photography than about science ... but still ... you'll find some more interesting species in what's following ... end even some scientific names ... so hopefully, this will give a bit more depth to what is essentially just a series of colorful visuals. On the following photograph ...
... is another fritillary species, the considerably larger Silver - washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia) ... the soft backlight makes a lovely aura around its wings ... but the intricate details in the shade, while still visible, can't shine in all their glory. On the next shot ...
... the same butterfly ... I mean, not only the same species, but literally the same butterfly ... a few seconds later ...on the same bunch of flowers (the blackberry flowers, I forgot to mention before) ... but lit from a different direction ... that accentuates better the structure of the wings ... the result - the same butterfly in the same side view, but a pretty different shot. That's mostly it, regarding the different ways of using the natural light to change the atmosphere of the shot ... the following photographs are here just to add more biodiversity to the post ...
... and to give you some more Latin words ... here, ad example, is the Weaver's fritillary (Boloria dia) ... and then ...
... another Boloria dia photograph, taken in another occasion.
Here is the pretty large Minois dryas butterfly ... and on the following photograph ... taken the same day, on the same plant, that is unknown to me ...
... is the very common Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) ... a pretty cosmopolitan, migrating species.
Here is one of the small blue butterfly species ... and yes, I admit - I was to lazy to search through many similar wings decorations to find out which exactly species is this, is it a female or a male. On the next shot ...
... another blue - in a very different light.
Here is a portrait of the male Orange tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) ... and for the closing shot ...
... the beautiful, partially transparent, Aporia crataegi butterfly ... Black veined white ... as always in these posts on Steemit, all the photographs are my work ... THE END.