Zephyrus — KAMERANNE

After switching to shooting butterflies in the end of May, I have mainly concentrated in finding and capturing the zephyrus (theclinae) butterflies. The zephyrus are arboreal lycanidae butterflies that have only one generation of grown ups each year in around June-September.

I have captured species that I can find within reasonable distance from my home, that is the Japonica lutea, Japonica saepestriata, Antigius attilia and Neozephyrus japonicus. I have not come by any English names for these species. A few times I also traveled two hours in order to capture the Artopoetes pryeri, but unfortunately had not luck with that species. I have got to know that when shooting butterflies, timing is crucial: sometimes you search for them too early, sometimes a day too late (as happened for me with this species) or sometimes you arrive to a location only 5 minutes late and hear from other photographers what you have just missed.

The Neozephyrus japonicus is immensely popular among butterfly enthusiasts in Japan, especially the male one. For it’s emerald green-blue wings it is often called jewel of the forest. Capturing the male with wings open can be hard. It rests long hours wings tightly closed and when it opens it’s wings, it does it for a very short time, often only for 5 to 10 seconds. Again, it is all about timing! It also happens that you you find a butterfly, wait an hour or two for the butterfly to open it’s wings and when it does, it turns out to be female -what a disappointment - or it flies away without showing it’s beautiful wings at all -even bigger disappointment. I am afraid that happened to me a few times this season. Also, pending on the shooting angle and the direction of light, the colors may not turn out nicely.

最近蝶の撮影に切り替えてからゼフィルスを中心に探しています。ゼフィルスは樹上生シジミ蝶の一群で、成蝶は6月から9月の間発生し、年に１化。今年は家から比較的近いところで見つかる４種類のゼフィルス、アカシジミ、ウラナミアカシジミ、ミズイロオナガシジミとミドリシジミを撮りました。以上の種類に加えて、ウラゴマダラシジミも何回か探しに行きましたが、収穫はなかったです。二時間かけてある日ある公園に探しに行ったら、前日までいたと言われました。蝶の撮影はタイミングは全てと改めて感じさせられました。

ミドリシジミ、特にオスはフォトグラファーの人気者です。エメラルド青緑で輝くミドリシジミは森の宝石とよく呼ばれます。しかし、ミドリシジミの緑を撮るのは難しいです。休んでいる時翅は閉じたままです。蝶を見つけて、長い間観察しても翅は閉じたままで、翅の裏を見せてくれないです。オスなのか、メスなのか分からない時が多いです。やっと翅を開いてくれたら、5秒から10秒間しか開かないこともあります。ここもタイミぐは致命的です。それから、撮る角度や光線によって色が綺麗に出ない事もあります。場合によってやっと翅を開いてくれたら、オスではなく、メスだとがっかりする事があります。私はこの季節にこういった悔しい経験がありました。