My wife and I were walking back on the trail from Twin Falls in Pedernales Falls State Park when I spotted a pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor) flirting with a Texas thistle (Cirsium texanum). This kind of shot seems best suited for a macro lens, but I didn't have one at the time, and the butterfly was too skittish anyway, so I improvised by using my 80-400 tele-zoom, setting up my tripod about ten feet away, and waiting patiently until the butterfly settled down for a moment. The lens turned out to be a great choice because it produced great detail and a nice blurred background while still preserving enough depth of field to capture the entire thistle head in focus.

Date: 4 May 2005
Location: Pedernales Falls State Park, Texas, United States
Original resolution: 6 MP
Processing: Processed from RAW using Nikon Capture NX2