Giant swallowtail at Wheelabrator, photo’d on the fly by Dave Amadio on 8-30-13.
Same individual bobbing and weaving trying to avoid Dave’s lens!
Dave Amadio sent in the following note with his photos above:
“Had the giant swallowtail again this afternoon [8-30-13] at Wheelabrator in Westville. I am somewhat embarrassed to send such poor images. Kevin Karlson I am not! In my defense, this swallowtail would not give me a break. It weaved and bobbed like a heavyweight boxer. It never even attempted to land during the hour that I saw it off and on. If I see this bug again, it owes me for my efforts! The pictures verify the I.D., but nothing more.”
Thanks to Dave for the documentation and for making the larger point.
All butterfly photographers (probably all photogs of every interest) have learned that most shots are delete-able: unfocused, too-distant, backlit, off-center, etc.
Even blurry photos can document a rare species or an early/late or FOY record, however. Please share them. Who knows? There might be a skeptic or two out there paging through our log who won’t believe that you saw what you claimed unless you provide photographic evidence!
If you have uploaded your pix to a website (Flicker, Smugmug, or others), you can paste the url link into the column on the far right of the log (just past the observer’s name column) and users can click immediately on it right there. In the notes column just add Photo –> to point viewers to that column. Alternatively, you can send the shot to nacotejackATgmailDOTcom and I will try to use those that are most helpful on this blog or the log’s Welcome Page.
Here’s another shot that might not win a photography contest but earns its value by documenting a South Jersey rarity, our FOY sleepy orange for 2013, found by Clay Sutton in his backyard:
Sleepy orange photo’d by Clay Sutton in Goshen on 8-27-13.
And finally I can’t help posting this one:
Kevin Karlson, look out! At least one viewer thinks this last giant swallowtail image from Dave has an abstract and magical appeal that many super-sharp photos can not match!
.
Keep ’em coming, everyone!