When you’re searching for large, photogenic butterflies your eyes are trained for movement and keen to see activity on nectaring wildflower. After much time spent doing this you find that you are also wired to notice smaller, yet unexpected photographic opportunities.

This is such a find. Our female Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly has minutes before left her night time hiding place in the Outdoor Gardens of the Phipps Conservatory and now warms herself with the morning sun’s gentle rays. There is little activity around her at this morning hour (9:20).

This is the view you will enjoy of Everes comyntas. Note her white wing fringes, the sweet orange hindwing dots surrounding black dots. Her gray is rich and her ‘tails’ mostly gone, as the result of?

Very often people stroll over from nearby (very nearby) University of Pittsburgh and from Carnegie Mellon University to sit on the welcoming benches of the Outdoor Gardens and to stroll through the Gardens to collect their thoughts, prepare for their lecture and ponder their research path. Our Eastern Tailed-Blue helps relax them and reminds them to remain grounded and enjoy the rewards of being an esthete.

Jeffrey