Cloudy

I find sulphurs very hard to photograph so when this Clouded Sulphur landed in my patch of echinacea and starting nectarineg, I was right there firing off shots.  It stayed in the patch for a good 10 minutes which allowed me to take a ridiculous number of shots.  Usually when I see this species, it is flitting erratically without ever actually landing - or if it lands, it is on the ground!  I cropped this and made some minor adjustments to exposure - the light was really pretty perfect when I shot it, so I can't take much credit. 

I am finding the 24-200 to be a good little lens for things like this.  I was 2-3 feet from the butterfly so would have been too close for my telephoto and too far for the macro.  I wish it were a bit faster but that would mean heavier which isn't ideal for me.  I still have it for another week so lots of opportunities to test it with various subjects and conditions.   I don't love it for birds although I did get a decent shot of a fledgling red-winged blackbird which I've put in Extra.  More crop than I like, but the image is pretty sharp.

I had a nice long FT chat with my parents this morning.  First thing I noticed was a big bruise on Dad's forehead - turns out he had a fall several days ago  while he and mom were out hiking and creamed hand, head and knee.  The hand is quit swollen but he doesn't believe anything is broken.  Aside from bumps and bruises, they were in good spirits.

Jax and I were in the garden for a while this morning until a fly landed on him.  He doesn't like bugs and can be quite the drama-queen with them.  The other night we were watching TV together on the sofa (Hubs, Jax and I) when something small ran across his leg (maybe a small spider?) and he jumped of the sofa twitching and acting as if he was under attack.  I think he gets his fear of insects from Hubs who reacts similarly...

I think dark with orange today.

xo
Debbi