I love the challenge of photographing things with wings. Because things with wings have the ability to fly they don’t always sit still long enough to capture a perched image of them. For me, the erratic flight patterns of butterflies make it much more difficult to photograph them in flight than most birds. When they are flitting about, they don’t have a predictable pattern of movement that I can rely on to capture them in flight. Sometimes though, like birds, they will perch for a brief period. I was pleased when this Emerald Swallowtail, a native of Asia, stopped flitting and perched on a leaf at the Missoula Butterfly House last week. Its spectacular wings with their iridescent emerald markings on the front side are hidden when its wings are closed as in this image. The undersides of its wings are much more subdued than the tops. However, the recognizable swallowtail shape of the wing along with the curled up proboscis and black buggy eye are interesting details that can be easily overlooked when the bright dazzle of the emerald markings on the front of the wings are visible.