Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper butterfly, Pyronia tithonus.  West Wickham Common, 24 July 2011.

I went out one morning with my camera with the clear intention to take photos of things other than butterflies. I had seen lots of butterflies over the previous few days and there must, I thought, be other interesting insects around. But what I saw, in perfect poses, was more butterflies, and I got a couple of shots that were better than average. No other insects, though!

This Gatekeeper was just a bit out of reach for me to capture it nicely using the viewfinder of my camera, so I tried a mode which I hardly ever use, which shows you the image in the swivellable screen on the back, and lets you hold the camera out at arms length. In this mode, autofocus is slow and cranky, but the butterfly waited for me on a bramble leaf, and here it is.