Giant Swallowtail

The Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest of all North American butterflies with a wingspan of 4-6 inches. This swallowtail ranges throughout much of the Eastern United States, and is less common in the American Southwest and southern California. It typically stays close to wooded areas, and close to the ground. In a typical year 2-3 broods are produced. Favorite host plants include Hercules Club (or Devil’s Walkingstick), prickly ash, citrus, lime, herb rue, hoptree, and wild lime. Here in my yard in NE Oklahoma, it lays it’s eggs on hoptree, Ptelea trifoliata, also called Wafer Ash.

Specific Feedback Requested

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Technical Details

Canon 60D, Canon 70-300 IS USM @ 180mm, f/11, 1/350 sec. ISO 1250. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied.

Beautiful!! Wonderful DOF and detail. Pleasing soft light and color with a very nice pose showing a hint of the top of the wing as well. Butterflies can be challenging to approach.

Oh Terry, he is beautiful! It looks like he posed just for you. Wonderful details and colors. Very nice. You might could crop a little off the right to make him a little more off center, but really, the flower helps balance the image and the BF has “room to fly”. Nice image.

Thanks @Diane_Miller. This may be my favorite butterfly to photograph. She was intent on feeding on this Ironweed, and paid me scant attention. I’m glad because it was 104 degrees when I took this photo and didn’t have a lot of patience to wait for her to land and be still!

Thanks @Shirley_Freeman. I became really excited when I walked around the corner of the house and immediately saw her on the Ironweed!

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As Diane and Shirley have said, this is like the perfect capture, Terry. And thank you, again, for providing the history and background on this Giant Swallowtail.

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Hope you and all the critters are surviving the heat! If it’d as humid as I expect, it must be brutal. One very small good thing about the dry west is lower humidity.

Thanks, @linda_mellor . And it is my pleasure to provide any info I may know about the wildlife and and the habitat that sustains them. Hopefully, that will encourage others to provide the plants, etc. these creatures need to survive and propagate.

Thanks, @Diane_Miller. More than the heat and humidity is the lack of rainfall. Zero rain in the last 40 days during this heat wave. Everything is burned to a crisp and the groundhogs and other wildlife that depends on vegetation is hungry. I have been supplementing them with food and water, where I can.

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Great capture Terry. I’ve tried taking these types of shots a few times and I’ve always found it challenging. I think the image would work well with a square crop, especially since the wings are a little close to the top edge. It would also help to bring more focus on the butterfly and highlight all the fine details.

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Thanks, @AndreDonawa. Yeah, that crop works, too.

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WE’re in the same heat wave down here in the Texas hill country . . . .as Diane said, brutal! I’m taking a hint from the wildlife; laying low and staying in the shade! Take care, Terry.

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Terry, a fine look at this BF and the ironweed. How or whether to crop this gets into what are you trying to show. If it’s to be a “portrait” of the BF then cropping is good. If you want to show the BF in it’s environment, then this works well, or a 4x5 might be a compromise that gives the BF more emphasis but still includes plenty of the ironweed.

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