I chased this orange butterfly for quite some time on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and was delighted when it chose to land on top of a fallen leaf. The warm oranges and browns of the butterfly are a wonderful match for the autumn season and the fallen down leaves that now litter the landscape.
I could not immediately identify the butterfly, but when I got home I was able to determine that it is a Variegated Fritillary butterfly (Euptoieta claudia). My car windshield was covered with frost yesterday morning—autumn is definitely here and I suspect that my insect sightings will be decreasing sharply soon.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That’s a wonderful shot, Mike. Are you taking credit for the composition or sharing it with your subject?
I think that the right thing to do is to share the credit. The butterfly gets credit for posing in a photogenic way, but I still had to frame the shot. 🙂
How cooperative of him! 😂
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
I sometimes try to telepathically suggest to my subjects that they should pose in a certain way or in a certain location–it rarely works. 🙂
Doesn’t work for me either! Bahaha!
Awesome.
Very nice Mike! Great Butterfly image!
Thanks, Reed.