Common Blue Morpho Butterfly

This is one of my most wanted photographs. In what is rapidly approaching a dozen trips to the Central and South America, I have only gotten one just okay shot of the Blue Morpho Butterfly, perched on a bush beside a overgrown canal in Panama, with its wings open. I have seen many hundreds of Blue Morphos in flight and photographed maybe two dozen with their wings folded, but they rarely perch with their wings open. I had to go to Denver, Colorado to get this shot, and it happened just moments after entering the Tropical Butterfly enclosure at the Butterfly Pavilion. There was a Banded Morpho harassing this Common, and you can see the tip of its out of focus wing at the bottom left. It successfully drove the Common off just a second later. Of course I have mixed feelings about butterfly photographs taken in Butterfly habitats like the Butterfly Pavilion. I would much rather I had captured this creature in the wilds of Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, or in Peru along the Amazon. Still, as a photo of a Blue Morpho it is about as good as it can get. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr.

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