NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY.

When Butterflies Are Dancing in Your Garden

A moment of joy and peaceful beauty

Butterflies have always brought a smile to my face. Their artistic flapping of the wings together with a fragile body dancing through the skies. How could someone not smile when seeing one?

“Open your heart and mind like the wings of a butterfly. See then how high you can fly.” — Zeenat Aman

It was a few days ago when I noticed the first peacock butterfly this year. I mean, to notice it intentionally. I was on the way to the plane and the butterfly was sitting down on my customer's shoulders.

I was filled with joy.

The passenger who was about to go on the plane to do a skydive had no eyes for the beautiful butterfly.

However, it wouldn’t be the last one I’d see. One day later I was getting out of the trailer when another peacock butterfly just sat down on the garbage bag I wanted to take to the trash bin.

I turned around, changed plans, grabbed my camera, and took a picture instead. It’s not one of my favorite ones. Because of the trash and plastic involved.

And yes, I do have yellow plastic bags for our trash.

Yet there is this beautiful butterfly shining in bright colors.

Moving into the trailer park has only intensified my connections with nature. While I always had been out and about a lot, now I literally live in nature. I walk out of the trailer and step into the forest or onto the fields.

I’m kilometers away from the nearest town or human settlement.

But I have a colony of butterflies in my front yard. And it’s a mixed colony. These butterflies tolerate different nationalities and races. I counted up to six species at the same time on the same lavender bush.

Talking of which. The scent of this lavender bush is just so lovely. I do understand how all these creatures get attracted by those lilac flowers.

“Forgiveness is the smell that lavender gives out when you tread on it.” — Mark Twain

Whenever I walk in or out of the trailer these days, I glance at the lavender bush and smile as I see a colorful swarm of butterflies dancing around it.

The European peacock is maybe the most dominant one in color and brightness but there are plenty more species trying to compete with him.

Once I noticed the butterflies do not disappear when I step closer, I had to get back inside to grab my camera.

Unfortunately, some of my traveling to harsh environments has done something to my zoom lens. It doesn’t want to operate anymore. Not in autofocus at least. I have to help manually or switch to manual focus entirely.

That was when the below picture was taken. At first, I wanted to delete the shot. But somehow it had a special shine to it. The blur. I kind of like it.

“Blur is not a matter if you love the emotion in the picture.” — Unknown

While getting sad and frustrated with myself (for damaging my lens) I didn’t give up so quickly and got rewarded with some pretty patient and photogenic butterflies posing for me.

“Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful.” — Beau Taplin

Whenever I thought I was done with photographing the butterflies I’d come back to the trailer from work and see another pretty species appearing.

After the difficulties with my zoom lens, I took out my wide-angle lens and shot the flying peacefulness from just a few centimeters away.

There were countless white butterflies standing out from all the lilac of the lavender bush. I had seen them already earlier in the year and was so intrigued by them. But they made for a good ambiance as there were always one or two flapping around as I was trying to capture one of the more colorful ones.

“If you smile when you see a butterfly, you have happiness in your soul.” — Diana Cooper

The next time another bright beauty attracted my attention. From afar I thought it also was a peacock butterfly but quickly recognized the different colors and patterns on the wing.

I struggled at first to get a clear picture of it on the bush as the wind was blowing but this friend wasn’t just patient but also attentive and decided to sit down on the pebbles of the walkway for me to have it easier to get a good shot.

Research tells me this is a small tortoiseshell (aglais urticae).

I had been adding the photos already into a draft and wanted to start typing when again, a new species appeared. The same colors but different patterns. This one was also a bit smaller but it could also just be a younger butterfly, I think.

As I realized the variety of butterfly species I encountered on this single lavender bush, I decided I also had to get a close-up shot of the white-yellow one. To complete the documentation.

If I am not mistaken this butterfly is known in Europe as the large white or cabbage butterfly (pieris brassicae).

The other beauty in the image stands out with the spotted pattern and even has a royal name.

The queen of Spain fritillary (issoria lathonia) is posing for me.

The party isn’t done yet. More participants are joining the dancing celebration. And while I thought I had seen all species already, more different “nationalities” appeared.

“We delight in the beauty of a butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” — Maya Angelou

The small heath (coenonympha pamphilus) almost made its appearance without me noticing. I was too busy admiring all the other colorful dancing participants.

And then another seemingly unimpressive butterfly appeared. Not alone but in pairs. At first, I could only see the top of his wings and zoomed into the yellow and white patterns.

Only later when I went through my pictures I realized the different patterns this butterfly has on the wings below. And now I know it’s the same species I spotted the other day in the fields. That time I only got him with the wings closed and described it as a pattern of a world map.

The marbled white (melanargia galathea) has two totally different sides of his wings. In the pictures below you can see both of them.

All those things you only notice once you start looking for the small joys in life. Keep your eyes open and great things will happen.

“Until you spread your wings you will have no idea how far you can fly.” — Napoleon

I have listed now six different species but wouldn’t be surprised to find a few more in the upcoming days. I’m sure I missed one or two. So far, I never spent more than five minutes at the lavender bush and captured whatever and whoever was around.

This was it for now but maybe I’ll bring out another butterfly post in the future.

A big thank you to my mom who didn’t have to identify birds this time but a selection of butterflies. I sent her the images last night and had the names of all of them this morning.

She said she’s not one hundred percent sure with all of them. Her books weren’t giving her enough details and she used the internet to specify her search. I’m thankful and proud of her.

I know she loves researching the species of animals and I just don’t have the time or patience for it. Plus, it allows us to communicate in some ways.

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” — Eckhart Tolle

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