When the weather turns hot and humid, even the insects seem to enjoy the shade, like this Cabbage White butterfly (Pieris rapae) that I encountered recently while searching for dragonflies. I never fail to be amazed at the speckled green exotic eyes of this common butterfly.
The Cabbage White’s almost pure white body, though, is often a real challenge for me, because it seems to confuse my camera’s metering system and images are often severely overexposed. In this image. I think I used spot metering to try to get the correct exposure, which seemed to help. However, there was a greenish color cast in the initial shot, probably caused by the light filtering through the leaves, that I had to fix in post-processing.
The Cabbage White does not have the spectacular colors of many other butterflies, but nonetheless possesses an understated elegance that I find really attractive.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Stunning image Mike … I totally agree those eyes are beautiful and you certainly summed it up when you said “speckled green exotic eyes” they really are exotic, excellent shot again sir.
Thanks so much for your exceptionally kind words. All to often we assume that the commonly seen birds and insects aren’t worth a second glance. A closer look often reveals that there is real beauty in the ordinary.
My eyes aren’t good enough to see such tiny eyes in person but they’re fascinating in the photo!
They are common around our parts. I agree, it is difficult to capture them, especially on a sunny day. Very good capture.
I love the green theme for the white butterfly. I find white and yellow flowers very difficult to do justice to. Amelia