Saturday Bug Blogging

A hoary comma butterfly, polygonia gracilis. We were taking the trail through Norris Geyser Basin and my wife had the camera in her hands when this butterfly landed next to us. She had wanted to take pictures of some steaming mud or something, so I handed the camera to her for just a minute, and when this butterfly landed I asked her to take a picture of it for me. I could not have taken a picture like this if I had been out there all day (because you know, I was out there all day).
The composition blows me away. I love the way the antennae and the edges of the wings are echoed by the cracks and stains on the top of the post, and how the lines of the wings and body are echoed by the sticks and shadows on the ground. This image is not cropped, color corrected or photoshopped; it came out of the camera like this (except that Picasa and Blogger reduced it in size).