A new tradition at the Butterfly House in Faust Park here in St. Louis is “Blue Morpho Mardi Gras,” held each February. While the BH always has a few morphos on hand, they carry an extra 1,500 for this event.
So let me go ahead and disenchant you right now: blue morphos are the worst. Beautiful? Sure! Their long, elegant wings are a dazzling bright blue and even a festive blue-purple ombre in the right light. When they flutter crazily about they almost seem to leave trails of electricity, they are so vibrant. It was quite a sight to see so many at one time (although I didn’t get the sense of fifteen hundred).
So why are they the worst? Because THEY WON’T SIT DOWN. Most butterlies flit to and fro in their paradise of sweet-smelling flowers, gold-specked sunlight and never knowing what politics is, but they land frequently to eat nectar and sun their wings (“sunning” being when they spread them out in all their glory). Blue morphos are…frustratingly ephemeral. They just don’t stop. They. Don’t. Stop. They never have. They never will. I assume it’s some evolutionary device that has allowed them to escape various jungle predators over the eons, but this is America, Jack. I need you to calm it down. At one point I lowered my camera and muttered “I’m pretty sure they could tranquilize these [expletive deleted]s if they wanted to.”
And even though I’m sure butterfly interest groups would protest loudly at the sedating of blue morphos in the interest of getting ONE, just ONE good picture, I am willing to take an ethically spurious stance here for the benefit of photographers everywhere.
Oh, I almost forgot. They do land sometimes. And sit with their wings folded up (the undercarriage, as with many other butterflies, is an extremely disappointing brown). And basically fall asleep I guess. The insectarium has various platters of dessicated banana peels which are somehow a butterfly delicacy, and the blue morphos love these things. In fact, they sit there so long - with their wings folded up so you can only see what looks like tree bark - that I should inform you that a dead blue morpho is actually distinguished by the fact that you can actually see its wings for once as it lays in repose. And you know how fun taking photos of dead butterflies is!
Anyway. I’m just saying. I’m sure some people out there love the challenge. I like a challenge too, when there is at least a vague path to victory. In the end, I actually got a couple of shots of them in motion and showing off the blue (more on camera technique in a moment). And I found one sitting on the ground near the exit that would open its wings at the speed of light every two or three minutes. I stood there like an idiot and caught some shots there too (first blue morpho photo below). And it was hot! Nice and hot and muggy in the ol’ dome, and I bet if you turned the temperature down a little bit in there…they wouldn’t be so chipper…I’m just saying……
The blue moprho, Earth’s most dastardly creature.
There were other butterflies there too, of course, thank GOD. As usual I brought my 100-400mm Tamron lens with me and as usual, it is phenomenal for handheld zoom. You can always get sharper photos by making a bigger effort, like lugging a tripod around and using a dedicated macro lens, but my budget is what it is, and I rather enjoy seeing what my workhouse will capture. In the old days I would have set my camera to Sports mode (which gives priority to a fast shutter), but now that I shoot in manual I set the shutter at 1/250 and the ISO at 500 for the Butterfly House. Where butterflies were hiding in dark areas, I upped the ISO; when trying to deal with the blue morphos I used 1/1250 for a bit. No science there, just trying to get in the ballpark. What I have done in the past though, with more entry-level equipment, is use a very fast shutter to reduce motion blur - though the original (the “negative”) is dark, if you shoot in RAW and use a professional post-processing program like Lightroom, you will have captured enough data to be able to up the exposure and no one will be the wiser.
Blue Clipper. (Strikes me as green but ok)
Blue Clipper from the front. 400mm, 1/250 shutter, ISO 1000, f/6.3. The focus isn’t perfect but it’ll do.
I think this is called a Central American Cattleheart but honestly, the BH’s website type is really small.
Again, their font is just like…really tiny. :\ I also may need to update my browser.
Paper kite, AKA The Golden Child.
I love paper kites. They are the best. They know the perfect balance of flying and landing, their wings look the same on BOTH SIDES, and they are just born knowing how to pose. I caught myself at one point singing softly to it, like “you’re a perfect butterfly, yes - you - are,” and I feel no shame or guilt about this.
My best paper kite photo is featured on the Missouri page of this website - if you haven’t seen it, go look!
Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post; it looks like I’m going to Glacier National Park for my next big photo trip. I think I’m going to aim for a September/October time frame. More to come.
Lastly, I am leaving tomorrow for Las Vegas for a week, and will be visiting Red Rock Canyon, about which I am super stoked. You can look forward to those pictures, too. :)