I have many fond childhood memories of capturing Tiger Swallowtails in bug catchers to admire them, then let them go. As a child, I was really big into collecting insects. However, we also tried to let many go before they expired. It was never my goal to kill them, that I remember. But I used to see these yellow creatures fluttering around all the bushes outside our apartment. Nowadays, I rarely see them. I saw a few in one day while out testing a new camera, and got this perfectly timed shot of the butterfly feeding. There's no lens EXIF data, because I shoot through an adapter with Canon lenses.
Dragonflies are fascinating subjects for me. They fly around, flitting from place to place. I want to photograph one in flight, but their erratic flight pattern makes that a challenge. I did capture this one, though, as it sotpped to rest on the very end of a branch. I couldn't help but feel like it was staring me down as I snapped a few photos of it.
This is my first published image taken from the Sony Alpha 7R. I took this with an old EF-mount Canon 35-80mm lens, a ND3.0 filter, and no aperture control at the time. I wanted to capture that moment when the world is one color, blue, and a group of fishermen was simultaneously preparing to catch the last of their fish for the night. I really liked the resulting composition, with the entire image reflected almost perfectly in the water.
