Butterflies are very hard to photograph well, and morpho butterflies – these iridescent blue species from Central and South America – are almost impossible. They fly so fast and so erratically that even in a butterfly house where they’re captive, it’s extremely challenging. I photographed this butterfly in the wild in Mexico, and the only way I was able to be successful was that I had learned something about their behavior. Butterflies won’t fly into darkness, and in a heavily forested area in southern Mexico railroad tracks had been cut into the jungle. Butterflies used the clearing as a flyway, and I found a tunnel into which the butterflies wouldn’t enter. I stood right at the mouth of the tunnel with a butterfly net, and as the insects turned around I was able to catch one of the morphos after many attempts. I had met a couple of young girls who were interested in what I was doing, and in my pathetic Spanish explained my picture taking efforts. Their father came over and invited me to dinner, so I was able to use their refrigerator to cool the butterfly down. When the temperature drops below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, the insects can’t fly. So, after 15 minutes in the fridge, I took the morpho outdoors and placed it on a leaf. As it warmed up its muscles by opening its wings, I photographed it with the back of the camera as parallel as possible to the surface of the wings to maintain sufficient depth of field. My settings were 1/125, f/8, 100 ISO.
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