I waited til the last minute today to take a photo- and all I had the energy for was to collapse in a chair on my deck and wait for something to happen. I saw a hummingbird in the geraniums when I first came out, but I guess my camera and long lens scared her away. Then I sat and waited . . .
and waited
and waited!
No birds at all (not even the ubiquitous jays)! And no squirrels.
I finally noticed a butterfly that came sailing through our garden and over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. It didn’t light on anything, but just zoomed around. I’ve been wanting to get a macro shot of a butterfly, but today I would have just been happy with an in focus shot!
I followed that butterfly for over a half hour as it sailed through the yard in the same pattern over and over again. We have lots of flowers, so you would think it would make a stop now and then. I did notice it slowing down over a particular shrub, so I focused on that bush . . .
and waited.
Finally Mr. Butterfly came into view, and I snapped a few mediocre shots from far away with my 300mm lens. None of the images were spectacular, so I have combined a very cropped image of the butterfly with some photos of the geraniums where it SHOULD have landed!

Nice capture, even if it didn’t land on the geraniums. And the geraniums are lovely. It’s a Swallowtail, I think. I have seen very few butterflies this year.
With such patience you are bound to catch that butterfly soon. Nice shots anyway though.
[…] weeks I’ve been trying to photograph the elusive swallowtail butterfly that dances merrily through my yard each day. One day there were two of them, zigzagging back and […]