Month end and Monday color

Fritillary, perhaps Speyeria hydaspe, against streaky green backgroundAnyone is free to pick on me regarding my definition of ‘abstract’ for this one, and I won’t argue – it doesn’t really fit with my own definition. But it’s what I have from a month that included few choices for a month-end abstract. This fritillary butterfly, which might be a Speyeria hydaspe, went well against the streaked background, which is actually a stand of pitcher plants in the botanical garden, same location and day as my copperhead encounter from the previous post. I spotted this butterfly from the other side, and it was patient enough (or whatever quality you’d like to assign) to wait while I switched sides for a better view. You get to see the results when this works out; many times it doesn’t, and my subject vanishes before I can compose the image to my liking. So it goes – there will be other subjects and other opportunities. But I do have to say that I’ve gotten a lot better at stalking, having a decent grasp of what will spook off a living subject and what won’t – it’s not perfect, but it has increased my capture rate. Patience and moving slowly are extremely important, and just have to be a constant habit of any nature photographer.

And since it’s Monday, I will include another image from the same outing, an American five-lined skink that was arrogant enough (hey, might as well assign some fun anthropomorphisms if we’re going to do it) to remain in place where the sunlight would have the best effect on its skin hues. This one is likely a young adult male, since the blue tail is common in the juveniles of both sexes but the red head is a sign of adult males, so ‘arrogant’ might be pretty appropriate. The color range is great though, especially when considered from a temperature standpoint – you can just hear the locals commenting about this being one hot-headed, cold-assed skink. Or at least I can…

American five-lined skink PLestiodon fasciatus basking in sunlight
There will probably be a few more images from the same session coming along shortly, but first, we must take a break to feature more supremely creepy content, because I cannot capture images of that nature without generously sharing them with as many people as I can. Grotesquely magnanimous, that’s me…

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