I was thrilled on Monday to see lots of butterflies as I was exploring Occoquan Regional Park. Many of them were small skippers that skittishly flew away whenever I approached them. Only a few were large and colorful, like the Red-spotted Purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) in the first photo. When it first landed on the plant, its wings were closed, but I waited and eventually the butterfly opened its wings. The damage to one of those wings this early in the season really emphasizes the fragility of these beautiful little creatures.
I also saw some brown woodland butterflies and I chased after several of them. I was out of breath but finally managed to catch up to one. Identification of this type of butterfly is always problematic, because there are quite a few similarly-colored species that vary only in the number and placement of the the eyespots. I think that the butterfly in the second shot is a Little Wood Satyr butterfly (Megisto cymela). I contemplated cropping closer, but decided I liked the little plant on the right side of the image and kept it. With this framing, I am able to create the illusion that the butterfly is staring at the plant.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That first photo is stunning, Mike. Nice work!
Nice Mike! Great images and fun to see butterflies returning! Great for photographers!
The color of the first one is deeply impressive. I’ll bet it gave your blue channel a workout.
I generally don’t mess around with the color channels, but did just now to see what happens. I may have to experiment some more with them. I tend to use only a very small subset of the capabilities of Photoshop.
It’s this: many animals and plants have specific colors that will completely blow out one of the channels. The red heads on Anna‘s hummingbirds, immediately to mind. On several of my hummingbird photos that I posted last year I had under-expose five stops to keep the red channel from blowing out when I took the picture. Five stops! I had to blow my mind to keep from blowing out the red channel. A channel blows out, you lose all detail in that color range.
Thanks, Michael, for the explanation about the channels. I plan to at least keep an eye on them now to increase my awareness of what they are showing.
I think you’ll see a difference.
Nice photos, Mike! Amazing shiny colours on this one.
Thanks, Pete.
That Red-spotted Blue is a gorgeous butterfly. I’ve only seen one but did manage a few shots. In addition to Mike’s avice regarding channels, they also come in handy for selecting some parts of an image for processing. I often use one of the channels to select a flower for added contrast and then reverse that to reduce the impact of the rest so the target, whether flower or other subject, really stands out.
At first glance your first reminded me of a mourning cloak, but it’s quite different. I’ve not seen one of these before, and it’s a beauty. Also, I like that you left the little plant with the four arms on the right in your image. Good call!
Thanks, Gary. I seem to be in a phase right now when I am happy to leave lots of open space, rather than zooming in or cropping really close.