early one morning

Now, I don't normally do early mornings.  But back in July we had a spell of frankly blisteringly hot weather which made staying in bed impossible.

So, I took advantage of this inability to rest and headed out to see if I could catch the insects in my local area before they stirred under the warming sun.

I spotted this gorgeous butterfly (a six-spot burnet no less) still resting on this blade of grass and thought that it'd be rude not to take its picture after it took the time to look so beautiful and pose for me!

On close inspection, it looks like some sort of mummified fly trapped at the top of the grass.  How lovely!

Nikon D700, Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8G
1/2000th of a second at f3, ISO 200
handheld

And as if that wasn't enough, I also got these bonus butterfly images!  Perhaps I should get up at the crack of dawn more often.

Nikon D700, Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8G
1/1250th of a second at f3, ISO 200
handheld

Nikon D700, Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8G
1/1000th of a second at f3, ISO 200
handheld

Nikon D700, Micro Nikkor 105mm f2.8G
1/160th of a second at f8, ISO 200
handheld