My knowledge of lepidoptery does not extend much further than, “oh look, there’s a butterfly” but I think this might be a western black swallowtail, apparently minus the swallowtails! This afternoon as I wandered along Miner’s Ravine Trail in search of California poppies to photograph (I found none) I did find some oddly named purple wildflowers commonly called bluedicks and, flitting about them, a few black butterflies that a Google search revealed might be western black swallowtails.
I took these shots using my 24-70mm lens at 70mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/1000. Even at that fast shutter speed, while the flower and the butterfly’s body are in focus, the wings moved ever so slightly, blurring them a bit.
Lovely shots- – we are still cloudy and grey skies here – blah – but for the big news – You motivated me to get it together and set up a web presence and blog – check it out and let me know what you think
http://www.ccphototx.com