So beautiful, and so difficult to photograph. This image of a Toronto, Canada Mourning Cloak is the most satisfying one that I have in my slide storage cabinet. . . and yet when I examine it, I long for the next opportunity to improve on it. This species of butterfly is among my favorites for many reasons. Totally unexpected when you meet one, at times approachable and often very skittish, colors that dazzle, and that session I had with one some years ago, after my wife passed.

Last year, in June 2013 I was on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel. I was there to meet for the first time with another bedazzler of a beauty, the Two-Tailed Pasha (Charaxes Jasius) butterfly. OMG! I only saw 3 during my 4 days on the mountain. They must have been trained by the IAF (Israeli Air Force). Each was resting on the trail, each would not allow me any closer than 30 feet, and each disappeared to Eastern Strawberry Trees at incredible speed.

I am going back to Israel again, on June 18th. Back to Mt. Meron, back to capture images of Two-Tailed Pashas. I will not be posting on wingedbeauty.com until my return to the States on July 17. Hopefully we will have celebrated the birth of a grandchild, and I will return with photographs of many butterflies, including Two-Tailed Pashas. Also . . . hopefully Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Iran will not ‘boil over’ while I am there, or forever, for that matter.

Au revoir!