Lovely Sister

Yesterday afternoon I was enjoying photographing the hummingbirds in the backyard. Every once in awhile a butterfly would flit by catching my attention as it floated past. There were Duskywings, Mylitta Crescents and a few Western Swallowtails. My favorites were the California Sisters. Luckily I had a few land on the oak tree right in front of me. They are such a striking butterfly with beautifully patterned wings. Hopefully there will be many more to come this summer. What a great way to end springtime. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. A Canon 550EX was used for fill flash on high speed synch.

Return of the Sisters

One of the things that I really look forward to in late spring and early summer is the return of the butterflies. Off and on over the last month I have been catching sporadic sightings of butterflies in my yard. Probably my favorite is the California Sister. They are one of the more common butterflies where I live. When Annika and I were at the coast on Thursday we saw quite a few butterflies. As we were walking back to the car she said,"Hey Dad look a California Sister!". I was expecting that she had see one far ahead of us somewhere so I was looking way ahead. She glanced back at me and stated, "No,Dad, right here."as she pointed barely three feet in front of her. It was was one sitting in a nice spot at a perfect angle on a flower. "Don't move." I blurted out. It stayed there long enough for me to compose about eight frames. This is the one I like the best. Hopefully we will be seeing more of them as the summer progresses. May you have a blessed weekend, chris This image was created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400IS lens V1. The camera was set to AV mode, ISO 400, F 6.3 at 1/1,000th of a sec.

Thirsty

Today was almost a repeat performance of yesterday. It was really hot out today. I photographed a Western Gray Squirrel coming to the little water set up and feeder next to my photoblind out in the front yard.Then I photographed a California Sister Butterfly getting a drink out of the backyard garden pond. A very enjoyable way to spend the morning. God's love and blessings to all, chris