I thought I would post an image of the day post once in a while here so here is the first one. This was taken about a week ago in my back yard on some very overgrown Lantana (see description below). A good photographer and teacher once told me that you don’t have to go to exotic places to take some great photos, sometimes you don’t have to look any farther than your own house.
Some times it is very hard to find those images when you are looking at the same place day after day, but there are usually all kinds of great opportunities that we overlook just by looking at the same thing every day.
These butterflies come to this plant all day every day, and have done so now for months, I just didn’t think about taking a photo of them until the end of the summer.
Images Details
- Camera Body : Nikon D100
- Lens : Nikon Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Macro
- Mount : handheld
- Exposure Value : -1.0
- Focal Length : 157mm
- ISO Speed : 400 (this was a mistake, didn’t check the setting)
- Aperture : f/8:
- Shutter Speed : 1/1000
- File Format : NEF converted to .jpg
Characteristics of Lantana Plants: [Lantana camara (sometimes misspelled Lantana camera), ‘Spreading Sunset’]
Known for their hemispherical clusters of small, bright-colored flowers (see picture above right), lantana plants can reach 6′ high (with a spread of 8′) in Florida landscaping. The flowers may be yellow, orange, white, red and purple, and often colors are mixed within the same cluster. Most people dislike the smell of lantana flowers, but the foliage is quite fragrant, smelling, in fact, like citrus. Lantana plants are salt-tolerant, and they’re drought-tolerant once established.
For those of you who were looking for a ham radio type of entry, the butterflies often land on my vertical high gain VHF antenna that is mounted at about 50 feet. If you have any comments or questions just post them below.
Scott Fillmer 
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