Butterfly Pano

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 235mm
Av mode
1/200"
F16
ISO:400
LR & CS3
HH

After a long dry spell, we had some rain yesterday and these male Cloudless Sulphurs were very happy to take advantage of the fresh mud. This represents less than ½ of the butterflies that were feeding in the puddle. I tried getting lower but when I did, the ridges on the tire ruts got in the way.

[Julie Kenward]

Gosh I hate that BG but gosh I love those butterflies! Any idea what's going on here? Did they all just hatch or are they feeding on something?

[Ken Childs]

Gosh I hate that BG but gosh I love those butterflies! Any idea what's going on here? Did they all just hatch or are they feeding on something?
I expected a comment like that about the BG but I wanted to share a look at the mass of butterflies. No matter what angle I tried I ended up with mud or chopped up grass, even after disturbing them a couple of time so they would land in a different spot.

Male butterflies need minerals that females don't and to get them they will feed on mud. It's been awhile since we've had any rain so when it came, they gathered and loaded up. Technically this behavior is called puddling.

[Hazel Grant]

I beg to differ re BK....ordinarily, mud, ugh, but the contrast of the ugly, rough mud vs the delicate bright green wings works for me.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Agree about BG, but this is a very nice found, I like the colors and scene. Did you lay down in the mud?:)
Can not imagine how to compose with a better BG, sometimes we have no other choice...maybe a much more tight composition (if it were possible) with BF/wings on the entire frame and almost no BG, even if that means no whole BF in the frame, just parts of BF...just a thought...

[Ken Childs]

Thanks Hazel and Ovidiu!

Ovidiu, this is part of my driveway and there is grass on both sides so I was laying down in the grass. I now have lots of little bug (chiggers) bites because of that. :D

I have other shots from different angles and at different times but this was by far the best grouping. Some may have had slightly better BG's but the butterflies didn't look very good.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Thanks Ken. But...since you have a lot of BF around there did you consider setting up a mud/wet sand area, in a place with nice BG, for attracting BF and capture this kind of behavior?

[Ken Childs]

Thanks Ken. But...since you have a lot of BF around there did you consider setting up a mud/wet sand area, in a place with nice BG, for attracting BF and capture this kind of behavior?
I've tried that but it never works as planned.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ken,
I agree the BG may not be the prettiest.....but then again for this behaviour......I guess it isn't supposed to be!!! I think this is a nice grouping that tells a great story! They all don't have to be pretty! The contrast of beauty and ugly....amke this work for me!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ken, I think the idea for the pano works out well considering the BG. Only photograhers would notice the BG here, the average viewer would only see the cool line up.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ken. Very cool pastel greens and I like the tight pano crop. I don't mind the mud - if it wasn't for the mud, they wouldn't be there in the first place. :)

[Anita Bower]

Looks like a butterfly parade! This is a great image and explanation of butterfly behavior, which, of course, i didn't know about. Thanks for sharing. These are lovely butterflies.

[Adrian David]

I don't mind the BG. The butterflies are all that counts.Very nice behavior image...

[Katherine Enns]

Biological realities come home to roost here, mud sipping is what they do. We often find them on less travelled muddy roads with puddles in breeding season. This is a beautiful pano. I love the BF's in a nice row, the color is wonderful, and the background could be more OOF but its also habitat, so I LIKEit!! Lol!