Texas Discovery Gardens

I took my first field trip with the Heard Nature Photography Club today. The destination was the Texas Discovery Gardens in Fair Park, home of the Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House & Insectarium.

The day was overcast, and with much of the light in the butterfly house being natural through the glass walls and ceiling conditions were darker than I'd expected.  Many of the club members had auxiliary flash units, something I've never invested in.  So my best options for getting decent shots were around the perimeter of the room, up on the second level.  Even so, I had the ISO jacked all the way up to 2000 to get enough detail.  Not making excuses -- just acknowledging that I wasn't as prepared as I wished I was.

Fortunately, there was a patch of firebush that I noticed was attracting many different species.  I could stand along the railing to let others pass and still have good angles for shots on several blossoms.  So that's exactly what I did.

I ended up taking more than 400 pictures over the course of a couple of hours.  Here are my best efforts, along with a shot at identifications.

EDIT: HUGE thanks to entomologist John Watts and guest relations manager Gabby Sant'Angelo for helping with most of the IDs! Some I didn't know at all, and some I thought I knew but got completely wrong.  They very graciously sorted me out!

Small Postman. Actually, a specific  subspecies called the Piano-key Postman – Heliconius erato cyrbia.

Tiger Longwing

Blue Morpho.  There were at least two in the facility, and as another photographer told me they landed very infrequently.  On the rare occasions when they did they typically kept their wings folded, hiding the blue pattern on their backs.  I was fortunate to catch this moment with the blue revealed.

Hecale’s Longwing, AKA Golden Helicon – Heliconius hecale.

Tiger Longwing

Tiger Longwing

Julia Longwing is my best guess.

Harpsichord Postman – Heliconius melpomene sticheli

Hecale's Longwing

Sunrise Longwing

Great Egg-Fly.  This one stayed plastered up against one of the glass walls, the weathered exterior of which add some nice texture to the shot.

Hecale's Longwing

Yet another Tiger Longwing.  I didn't realize so many of them were from the same species when I was there!

I only saw this Scarlet Mormon right as I was leaving, hanging upside down from a leaf.  I used my in-camera flash for the first time, and wasn't completely disappointed with the results

Had a great time shooting something different for me, and chatting with several other members of the club.  Shooting butterflies may never be my forte.  But there was definitely something magical about being in a peaceful, quiet place surrounded by so many of them.  A wonderful start to spring.