I chased this small orange butterfly around for quite a while before it finally landed. Only then was I able to determine that it was probably a Variegated Fritillary butterfly (Euptoieta claudia), a species that I do not see very often. I looked over my old blog postings and discovered that most of my sightings of this species have been late in the season—earlier in the season I tend to see the somewhat similar-looking Great Spangled Fritillary more often.
We have had a decent amount of rain recently, so there is still a lot of green in the vegetation that provides a nice contrast with the orange and brown tones of the butterfly. Those colors somehow remind me of the imminent arrival of the fall season. There is still a bit of the summer to enjoy, however, so I am not quite ready to jump ahead to the autumn—I prefer to live in the moment and celebrate what is in front of me in the present moments.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That’s a good photo, Mike!
Thanks. I have started to crop my images less and am now focused more on including more of the environment. Previously my goal was to fill the frame as much as I could with a subject, but that is a bit less important for me most of the time now.
I think it looks better with part of the environment showing. It gives the perspective of being out there rather than just a full frame photo of the subject. Of course, a full frame also looks good. It depends on what is being conveyed.
Beautiful capture, Mike!