Day 1 – Carleton University’s Annual Butterfly Show, October 1-10, 2011

Once inside the greenhouse, it was hard not to notice the fruit hanging from the trees and to admire the many exotic flowers, but the butterflies were the primary drawing card for today, so I soon stopped photographing fruit and paid more attention to the butterflies. (Technical: It was rather overcast outside today so lighting in the greenhouse was rather subdued and I took most shots at 400 – 640 ISO. I was using my Nikon D300 with a 105mm f2.8 VR macro lens).

During the 10 days of the show, there is no particular schedule that the 40+ species of butterflies follow in emerging from their pupae. Today, for instance, there seemed to be a larger number of black butterflies and Blue Morpho butterflies in the mix.

The Blue Morpho is quick to close its wings when it lands so it is quite difficult to catch a photographic capture of their bright blue coloration. Today I wasn’t successful in catching a shot of blue so have a challenge left for another day.