This photo won an Honorable Mention in the Butterfly Pavilion 2005 Photo Contest. It's a wild butterfly from Mueller State Park. I couldn't find a match I was entirely happy with, but the Greenish Blue (Plebeius saepiolus) was similar.

I think this was the Pavilion's first photo contest because there were some interesting submission choices I made based on their rules. First, they only allowed two submissions. Aaagh! I took hundreds of photos and about 60 made my personal 'semi-final' folder. I made the suggestion that they allow more submissions but make them self- limiting by asking for a nominal couple dollar donation per photo. Second, they had three catagories: lifecycle, behavior, and interactions with people. Since I could only submit two, I avoided choosing my two best, rather I chose my two best that fell in different catagories. I didn't want my submissions to compete with each other. Lastly, I knew they were looking for something to put in a calendar, but I didn't know exactly what the judge's personal sensibilities were. I had some interesting photos of clearwings, but I thought they might be disqualified if the judge didn't know they were moths. I knew there were going to be tons of in-the-pavilion photos but I thought I might have an edge if I submitted a 'wild' shot. And lastly, I chose my second photo based on the fact that there were no other photos of this stage in the lifecycle. More on that later.

So, I had a lot of second guessing and strategizing for this little contest, but I think it was a very useful excercise.