more butterfly spaces
On our trip to Ontario, I did a little chasing of butterflies. I was trying for a photo so I could identifyanother butterfly for my ‘life list’. So far I have collected two: ‘Monarch’ and ‘Viceroy’!
The field I focussed on had a lively population of yellow butterflies, and I thought it would be easy to catch one in a photograph. I was wrong!
If I stood still and waited for them to come to me, they would eventually flutter nearby but be gone by the time I had the camera in focus. If I chased after them… well that was just silly.
Eventually I did capture an image as one butterfly settled for a second on the purple head of a Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.).
Once I had my photo, I could identify the new member of my ‘collection’ – a Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice). Its distinguishing characteristics are a double spot on the underside of the hindwing and a submarginal row of dark spots. According to my source, the Clouded Sulphur is similar to the Pink-edged Sulphur (Colias interior) but the Pink-edged Sulphurhas a single spot on the underwing and no row of dark spots.
The experience of chasing this butterfly reminded me of a study I used to play on the piano when I was younger. The piece was by Chopin, the well-named ‘Butterfly Etude’. It was a hard piece (although I was playing an ‘easy’ version), made up of sets of of detached and un-detached octaves, played in rapid staccato. At the time I thought of it as just another study in agony, but now I realise how aptly it represents the inelegant, bouncy flight of the butterfly!
étude opus 25, no. 9 – Chopin
~
wrist staccato
octave stretches
disarticulated
sprite
~
wings a-flutter
closed and open
cloud to clover
bouncy bright
~
flirt and quiver
tip and stumble
clouded sulphur
butterflight
~
© Jane Tims 2011
So this is what you were up to, skipping through the field, holding your camera up to your eye (for what seemed hours).. I like how the words of your poem give it a “skittyish” feel, like the butterfly you were going after to photograph.
~Denis
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JD
October 10, 2011 at 9:18 am
Hi. I have new respect for your great shots of butterflies. Jane
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jane tims
October 10, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Butterflight….loved that!
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neelthemuse
October 10, 2011 at 7:28 am
Hi. Thanks! You never know when a word will be just right. Jane
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jane tims
October 10, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Love your sketch! – Heather
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Heather
October 9, 2011 at 9:13 am
Thanks!!!! I put all my sketches from the blog in a ‘gallery of pencil sketches’, so I can display them all at once. The gallery is in the pages section, in the same section as ‘about’. Jane
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jane tims
October 9, 2011 at 12:18 pm