I’m not sure how it happened, but I’ve befriended a Zabulon Skipper butterfly after my many photography adventures in our neighborhood.

Zabulon Skippers are small orange-brown butterflies that can easily be mistaken as moths at first glance. I’ve seen them enjoying the goldenrod and aster wildflowers that have been flourishing throughout our neighborhood. They’re probably part of why we’re seeing so many vibrant wildflowers, even into October!

The first time I saw a Zabulon, one was enjoying an ironweed wildflower. I had to get really close with my smartphone for this picture; I was just a few inches away. But he didn’t fly away until he was finished getting the nectar he wanted.

I’m not sure if that ironweed-loving Zabulon is also one of the Zabulons who’s taken an apparent liking to me. From what I’ve read online, butterflies have a very short lifespan of 2-4 weeks. Because that shot was taken in August, unfortunately, the odds are that he’s long gone.

But at any rate, I’ve been blessed with recurring visits from our neighborhood Zabulons.

A few days ago, I was walking across our backyard for another daily walk, and suddenly, two of them flew in and perched on the heel of my shoe. It was bizarrely magical. They were perched facing in opposite directions, too.

They let me carefully bend down and bring my camera close to them for a good picture. They remained on my shoe for at least a good minute before finally flying away.

It’s so odd but endearing that they zeroed in on me walking and felt safe landing on my shoe. Such an interesting spot to choose!

And then, just a day or so after that, one of those same Zabulons seemingly posed for me on one of the Butterfly Bushes Mom planted in our backyard garden. There were at least two of them, and they zoomed around me before taking positions on the bush flowers.

This one appeared to deliberately land on this flower right in front of me. He closely inspected the flowers for nectar while I took close-up pictures of him. He let me take different shots and adjust my lighting settings, like a very chill and amicable model!

And then, just before going off to work in the afternoon, I came back to the bush, and possibly the same Zabulon zoomed onto the flowers right in front of me. He let me take a short video (as best as my poor smartphone could do, given the wind blowing the flowers about) before flying away.

(Apparently, the video’s file type isn’t supported here on WordPress. Fiddlesticks!)

I had a similarly magical experience about a week ago with Monarch butterflies, of all things! I came back from my walk and visited the bushes. Two Monarchs were enjoying the bush flowers and let me take many pictures of them. After they flew away, I was thrilled to have such a lucky photography opportunity.

Right after they flew away, I realized that my phone hadn’t taken the best possible pictures of them. My Samsung S23’s normal photo mode renders pics in the usual 4000×3000 resolution. Its “super mode” (I suppose) is its 50 MP (megapixels) shooting mode that gives you a whopping 8160×6120 resolution.

My photos had been shot in the normal size when I thought I’d put the camera in 50 MP mode. The pictures were decent! However, I usually change the settings to 50 MP mode to get as much detail in my shots as possible.

Out of nowhere, one of the Monarchs came back. She even casually flitted around me first, as if saying, “Missed me? Here I am!” She took her position on the flower again and let me take another round of close-up shots of her.

I’m so grateful for my newfound butterfly friends! What a blessing they continue to be.

My passion for butterfly photos began last summer when I got decent shots of this female Black Swallowtail butterfly. Oh, she was a beauty indeed!

Speaking of Swallowtails, I’m likewise thankful that this male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail let me take this sunny, serene pic of him (back in August):

In light of the unavoidable limitations of smartphone photography, I’m even more grateful that these butterflies allow me to get so close to them for these pictures. Using a smartphone for wildlife photography is really tricky because our cameras don’t usually have a good zoom. The ones that do tend to give pictures with unfortunate quality issues.

Which is why getting this close to any butterfly, when butterflies as a whole naturally tend to flit away, is what I call a photography miracle!

All Images by Connor Brennan

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