Illinois Butterflies

[happy_peasant]

We spent the last few days taking the daughter downstate to college, and of course I took the camera along. Took lots of macro shots and a few birds. Since it is raining here I thought I would post some butterfly shots from the trip.

1. Buckeye


2. Monarch


3. Painted Lady


4. Painted Lady


5. Pearl Crescent


6. Another Pearl Crescent. Appears to have no abdomen.


7. Full zoom of above butterfly. This one flew and acted normal.


8. Red-spotted Purple on old dry dung. I did not notice either the fly or the other butterfly in this picture while I was taking it.


9. Gray Hairstreak (Originally thought it was an Eastern Tailed Blue)


10. Skipper

11. Sulpher or something similar


12. Male Black Swallowtail


13. Top view


14. I took a ton of moth pictures also, but that may be another rainy day post. This was on the door of a hotel.

[tinosa]

The markings on the first one look like the eyes and nostrils of a creature that would make any predator think twice,
All are very good captures and great timing on the open wings.
The last one looks like a sinister creature from another reality.
Good shootin' Steve.

[rafinmelb]

What a wonderful anc colourful collection. My personal favourite is #6 but it was a hard call with a number of terrific shots.

[d-sr]

That's a very nice series Happy. All very sharp and clear. Did you use extra macro lens or are these from camera only?

DonR

[happy_peasant]

Thanks for looking and commenting tinosa, Rafael and Don.

All of these were taken using Nikon 3T and/or 4T macro lenses. Flash was used and very fast shutter speeds. The butterflies in 5, 9 and 10 are quite small and probably both lenses were used for them but I could not say for sure. For that matter, for some of the larger ones I may have had both on when they appeared and just backed off the zoom. I have noticed that no matter how I set up the camera some creature requiring a different configuration will appear.

[Macnite]

Very nice series Steve, number 7 is my favorite.

[happy_peasant]

Thanks for commenting Emmanuel.

Now for my correction. I posted #9 that I have labeled an Eastern Tailed Blue to the flickr Butterfly Field Guide group and was told that it is indeed a Gray Hairstreak and not a blue. After I posted it here I noticed some of my pictures looked different then others. Below is a real Eastern Tailed Blue.

[tcook]

Beautiful butterflies Steve and the close-up is great.