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Posts Tagged ‘Colias philodice’

Dramatic lighting

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 2, 2023| 4 Comments »

The sunlight coming from the back and side of this Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) produced a really dramatic effect in this image that I captured last Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It looks almost like I had the butterfly posing for me in a photography studio, where I would have had full control over the power and direction of the light.

In situations like this, the settings on the camera are really important, because there is so much light that it threatens to blow out the highlights of the light-colored subjects. As a result, I deliberately underexposed the photo, which is why the background appears to be so dark, but I did retain a lot of the details in the butterfly and the asters.

For those of you who enjoy the geeky, technical aspects of photography, I was shooting with a Canon 7D DSLR and a Tamron 150mm-600mm telephoto zoom lens at 600m—I was using a monopod for additional stability. My camera was set to f/8.0, 1/1600 sec, and ISO 400 with negative 1.33 stops of exposure compensation.

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur and asters

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2023| 9 Comments »

Lots of wildflowers still in bloom as we move deeper into autumn here in Northern Virginia. Last night we had our first frost warning of the season, but I don’t think there was any frost this morning in my neighborhood—a hard frost may speed the demise of many of the remaining butterflies and dragonflies. I was therefore delighted last Thursday to spot this Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) feeding on the flowers of what I believe is a White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides) plant at Huntley Meadows Park.

Although part of the butterfly is obscured by the stem and the leaves in the foreground of this image, I like the way that I was able to capture the details of the butterfly’s green eyes and its extended proboscis.

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Feasting on goldenrold

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2023| 2 Comments »

I love bright colors and instinctively smile when I see the large patches of goldenrod that are still in bloom at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The insects seem to love these flowers too and last Tuesday I spotted a large Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and smaller Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) feeding on goldenrod.

Monarch

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Sulphur butterfly in July

Posted in Art, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2018| 13 Comments »

I love photographing the nondescript butterflies that are so common that they fly by virtually unnoticed, like this beautiful little sulphur butterfly that I spotted last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I believe it is an Orange Sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme), though it is often hard to distinguish that species from the Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice), so I am a little uncertain of the identification.

What I am certain of, however, is the delicate beauty of this butterfly and I am happy that I was able to capture some of that beauty in this image. As I gaze at this photo, I am reminded of the moment when I took it, a moment when I was enveloped by a sense of deep tranquility as the gorgeous sunlight illuminated the wings of the butterfly. Quite often when I am pursuing a subject, I can feel my heart racing a little as adrenaline kicks in.  This was one of the rare circumstances when I had the opposite physical reaction.

It is hard to describe in words what I was feeling, though it was definitely cool to experience. I hope that some of you will get a sense of that tranquility from this image. Iam becoming more and more convinced of the value of taking life a little more slowly, of opening myself up to experiencing the beauty that surrounds us every day.

sulphur butterfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur at Green Spring Gardens

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2016| 5 Comments »

Earlier this week I chased after this beautiful little butterfly at Green Spring Gardens, in Alexandria, Virginia. I am pretty sure that it’s a Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice), but have no idea of the identity of the flower on which it is feeding. Although at first glance it may look like I used flash for this image, a close examination of the shadows shows the direction of the bright sunlight. I was using spot metering for this light-colored subject, which meant that the background was significantly underexposed when getting a proper exposure of the primary subject.

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sulphur and aster

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on October 23, 2015| 9 Comments »

The large butterflies seem to be gone, but I continue to occasionally see smaller sulphur butterflies nectaring on late blooming flowers.

There are several different varieties of sulphur butterflies that look a bit alike, so I am not certain in identifying this butterfly. At first I thought that this might be a Pink-edged Sulphur (Colias interior), but the range maps suggest that we may not be in the correct geographic region for that species.

I think it is more likely that this is a Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice). As for the flower, it looks to me to be some variety of aster.

The weather is definitely getting colder—I had to scrape frost off my car’s windshield earlier this week—so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be seeing these little beauties. Beauty so often is transitory; all we can do is enjoy it and appreciate it until it is gone.

Clouded Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on April 28, 2015| 6 Comments »

Do you chase after butterflies? I do. There is a simple, uninhibited joy in running around a meadow in pursuit of a butterfly, waiting for it to perch, hoping to capture its beauty with my camera.

It’s still a little early for some of the larger, more colorful butterflies, but last week I was able to photograph this beautiful little Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice).

Clouded Sulphur butterfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , on September 18, 2014| 8 Comments »

Strange as it seems, I have been seeing more butterflies in the waning days of summer than I did at its height. I think that this little beauty, which I spotted on Monday at my local marshland park, is a Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice).

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur at Green Spring Gardens

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , on July 25, 2014| 6 Comments »

As I search in vain for larger, colorful butterflies, I continue to be amazed by the beauty of the smaller ones, like this Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) that I observed last week at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia.

Generally I like my closest shots the best when I am shooting with my macro lens, but in this case, I think I prefer the first shot below, that I took from a bit farther back. I like the way in which you can see the shadowy representations in the background of the stalks of the same kind of floweras the one one which the butterfly is feeding.

clouded2_blogclouded1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Clouded Sulphur butterfly

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on August 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a shot from this past Monday of a Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA.

Clouded Sulphur butterfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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