Hide and Seek!

The much-loved childhood game of Hide and Seek was brought to mind today.  Not by children frolicking about the hillside but rather by a butterfly.  The Fritillaries are coming more and more each day and the zinnia bed is a veritable bouquet of flying flowers!  I seem to take far too many photographs of the butterflies but their presence is so fleeting that I wish to preserve it forever.  Some of the critters, though, are a bit camera-shy.  They do not wish to be photographed or perhaps they just do not wish for me to venture so close to them.  Either way, it is difficult to get the "perfect photograph".  That one where the lighting is unique, the positioning is excellent and the butterfly actually cooperates by holding still long enough for the camera lens to do its thing!

The lighting was wonderful while photographing the butterflies this morning!

This morning early while the sun was still far in the east, I moseyed out into the Rose Garden.  There, a few Fritillaries were dancing on the last remaining rose blooms but it was the zinnias that were drawing the masses!  Picture after picture was taken!  I was near to Heaven!  Not only were there Fritilaries but the Yellow Sulphurs and Skippers were also busy getting breakfast!  After about twenty minutes of watching and photographing, I noticed that one Fritillary would visit a zinnia then leave.  Every time I would try to get a picture of it having breakfast, it would disappear from sight.  Where did this little flying flower go?  I decided to sit down and watch.

When facing directly into the camera, a Fritillary is almost too thin to photograph!

Sure enough, as if by magic, the orange butterfly would suddenly be on a flower head right in front of my eyes!  Then..poof!..it was gone!  I knew it had not left the garden but for the life of me, I could not find it!  Finally after about the third time of this disappearing act, I caught on to the game!  The butterfly was still right near me but was well hidden!  Instead of leaving, it merely alit on the ground facing me!  That way, the butterfly could watch my moves but it blended well with the ground that it was hard to see!  When facing directly at a butterfly, they are so slim that they are nigh on invisible!  It could see me..I just could not see it!

From this angle, the butterfly is nigh on impossible to see!  Look hard!  There really is one in the photograph!

After watching a bit longer, I decided to leave the butterflies in peace.  They could eat to their heart's content and beautify my gardens for as long as they wished!  I will continue to photograph them since they fascinate me so much.  Their fleeting visits, their fragility and, yet, their hardiness all intrigue me.