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Emerald Swallowtail

I have spent the last week in the Ames, Iowa area visiting friends and family. I stopped by Reiman Gardens located on the campus of the Iowa State University. The Gardens are a great place to see native plants. They also have a magnificent butterfly exhibit. Most of the butterflies in the exhibit are not native. Much care is taken to make sure they don’t escape. I photographed this Emerald Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio palinurus) while visiting the exhibit. I was impressed by the monochrome tone of the scene.

This species can be found primarily in Southeast Asia, particularly in Burma. One interesting fact is that the iridescent green sheen in not produced by pigments but rather through structural coloration produced by the microstructure of the scales on the wings. They refract the light and give rise to blue and yellow reflections producing the green color.

Emerald Swallowtail
Emerald Swallowtail

This image was taken with my Sony A7R II using my Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 Lens set on 200mm. The camera was set on Aperture Priority mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/25th of a second and the ISO set at 1600. I hand-held the camera for this photo. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and finalized in Photoshop using Nik Color Efex Pro.

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T. Kahler Photography
T. Kahler Photography
© 2017 T. Kahler Photography

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