Good Day Shooting

I was out shooting images again this afternoon. Great afternoon for it. Sunny and warm, but a bit breezy. I got some decent images, which isn't all that bad considering I have recently been shooting in Manual mode. Seems I remember a lot of what I knew before fully automatic cameras came into being. It is fun shooting when you figure out the expose yourself.

One interesting thing happened while I was out on the photo safari...I was in my favorite area, the Dry Canyon Trail, and I had a visitor. I have folks often ask me what I am doing and I tell them what I am shooting. Most look at me weirdly, and go on about their business. Seems photographing bugs isn't an all that well appreciated occupation 8v)

Anyway, this visitor was a young woman who walked up to me while I was sitting on a rock. She wanted to know if I was okay. A kind enough thought. I looked at her and said I was, then told her I was just waiting for a butterfly to return. When she asked me how I knew it would return, I simply said, "It always does." Well, she sat on the rock next to me and I explained what I was talking about. It wasn't much more than five minutes, when a butterfly landed about 15 feet away. It wasn't the Mourning Cloak I was waiting for, but a Zephyr Anglewing. It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds when the Mourning Cloak drifted by and the anglewing took off and attacked it.

They pair circled each other for a few seconds then split and I heard the young woman say, "Cool. It landed right in front of us." There it was, the Mourning Cloak less than six feet away. I fired off six or seven shots before it flew again and I went back to sitting on the rock. The young woman asked if I was going to wait again and I said I was. She said, "Have fun. Butterflies are really cool," and she headed back to the trail and walked off.

I may not have made her a nature lover, but hopefully she now has a better appreciation for the world around her.