A Mile from the Mediterranean, We Find a Dainty Little Copper Butterfly

We are looking at a dainty little Lycaena Thersamon Omphale: An Israeli copper butterfly found in much of Israel and in part of the Egyptian Sinai. It’s November, and I was shooting photographs a mile from the Mediterranean.

Sure I followed the Copper Butterfly from Camphor weed flower to flower. She didn’t seem to be alarmed when I made my careful approach. The several hundred readers who viewed our Technique feature have seen my stalking strategy.

I’m asked do I tire of photographing butterflies? Take this photograph for example. A visit with my daughter in Binyamina, Israel, mostly famous for its winery and palm trees enables me to also seek and photograph butterflies I’ve never seen before. As I’ve seen way too many U.S. western movies and who knows how much footage of lions and cheetahs stalking prey on the African veldt, moving silently and slowly to capture photographs of wild butterflies remains for me, a time-tested challenge. The exquisite beauty of these winged beauties, bejeweled in their oranges, blacks, reds, yellows, blues, purples and shades of the above are the reward. These butterflies are as beautiful as anything you will view at the magnificent jewelry exhibitions at the auction galleries in New York, London and Tokyo. I have seen jewelry exhibitions in New York for more than a decade. The Creator’s work trumps the work of the artisans. No doubt about it.

Jeffrey