The pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor (L.), is one of our most beautiful swallowtails. It is also known as the blue swallowtail. The U. S. distribution of the pipevine swallowtail extends from southern Connecticut south to central Florida and west to Arizona with an isolated population in northern California. They are found in many different habitats, but are most commonly found in forests. Attracted especially to purple-flowering plants for nectar, this one is on Swamp Milkweed in my native plant garden.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D
Canon 70-300 IS USM zoom @ 180mm
f/8
1/3000 sec.
ISO 2000
Hand Held
Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied.
Terry, what a nice capture, with great details in the butterfly, and I love the back lighting through the wings. The BG supports him nicely. You have included enough flowers to provide the setting. I think it would even work well if you were to crop some off the bottom and the left side, but I see you shot this at 180 mm with a 300 mm lens, so maybe this is the look you were seeking, which is fine. I know with zoom lens I have been guilty of getting excited about the subject that just landed in front of me and shoot at whatever I have the lens zoomed in at. Great image.
A lovely butterfly on a very nice perch! I agree with @Shirley_Freeman that quite a bit could be removed from the bottom and left to show off the butterfly even more. I think you might look at opening up the darkest tones a bit with the Shadows slider.
@Shirley_Freeman@Diane_Miller Okay…re-cropped. I didn’t crop it like this in the beginning due to the oof flower in the BC of the photo. However, after cropping this time, the top of that bloom was showing so I removed, cloned, and used the spot healing brush to clean that area up. Moved the shadow slider to max and lightened the dark slider a bit.
Oh Terry, I like the repost. I hope you do as well. I just wasn’t sure if you intentionally pulled your lens back some to include more flowers. Nice. I will ad “+repost” to your title.
@Shirley_Freeman@Diane_Miller Thanks, ladies. Yes, Shirley, I did pull back a bit to include more flowers, originally. I usually find when blooms ae bunched like these were, it’s difficult to know where to crop that doesn’t make the image look awkward. And I wasn’t sure how well I could clean up that oof flower in the BC, However, I think it cleaned up really well, and I do like the overall effect much better.
Beautiful capture! Perfectly positioned! I’ve seen something similar to this one when I lived in Rochester, NY. But must be a different species. You really have a knack with butterflies! I like your 2nd closer crop best!
