Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Natural History Museum

A friend, Debi Beauregard, had a couple of passes to the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science. She had asked if I would like to meet her there and since I had never been to the Butterfly Center I jumped at the chance. I am not much of a bug photographer but I got a couple that I don’t mind showing and a whole bunch that no one is ever likely to see. There is this rumor that old people are patient but I’m not hanging any hats on it. I would have sworn that those critters knew exactly what a camera was and were as uncooperative as any two year old.


There were some very large ones with bright blue wings which were beautiful. However when they lit they would never open their wings and on the undersides they were dull brown and very unremarkable. It was very much like the jewelry shoot that Debi invited me too last week. Once you get involved you learn that it is specialized because… and that generally there is special equipment that greatly improves your changes. The first thing I learned was that there was no way I could handhold well enough to get sharp photographs. I was able to use the pop up flash and stop down enough to eliminate ambient light for the few that I got that were keepers. As I told Debi, I want to go again but this time with off camera flash.

The weather in Houston today was pretty lousy so two and a half hours inside photographing butterflies was a very enjoyable pursuit and I greatly appreciate the invitation.