It’s November 19th, on one of those agricultural roads in Binyamina, Israel. The Artogeia Rapae butterfly has no interest in this lovely town, or its superb Binyamina winery, nor does she care a whit about the majestic palm trees that line the main street in Binyamina. It’s the same old dilemma: I must decide, again, whether or not to use a portion of my 50 or so rolls of Fuji Velvia film to photograph her.

It is so difficult to resist. She’s one of those pedestrian butterflies that we train ourselves to disregard. So plain are these butterflies, lacking Pow! Pow! colors. But then, aren’t we fascinated by certain talented photographers who train their camera lenses on so-called ordinary people in ordinary situations, and then create visual magic? Don’t we also venerate painters who have done the same?

That is the essence of the Small White Butterfly on a farm road in the Israel coastal plain. We see beauty in the familiar.

Jeff