"Don’t they fly away before you can photograph them?"

Butterfly watching has never been the same as when I started. Watching for them was never my concern and did not find it interesting. I thought why should I be clicking them since they are continuously flying and almost like never landed nearby you, even if so happen, it won't stay for long providing enough time to photograph them!! Damn those creatures!! 

Yeah, I did snap few pictures of them during the traveling old days. Instead, I find landscapes and portraits and other wild animals are fascinating. However, I had a soft corner for them as being an environmental science student, I guess!. But not sure....hmmmm. ....whatever! I don't know the exact date or time, but I guess it was during wildlife research techniques training organized by Friends of Nature in December 2014, I've got to realize that butterfly watching could be interesting. Those tiny insects are overshadowed by any other conservation action and activities. So, I felt I should do something for them.

After five years now, I'm still searching for butterflies and enjoying the moment to the fullest. Watching them can be fun, educational, and relaxing. More importantly, these tiny creatures are least preferred to study and research whilst, most are deviated to study megafaunal species like tigers, elephants, snow leopards, etc. 

At the very beginning, it was tough to watch and take photographs of butterflies. Sometimes, felt like why am I doing this? Why am I still here? It's so tiresome and boring to just wait and wait and wait just to watch them !!!... But whenever I've got to chase some butterflies and clicked a sharp and beautiful photograph and watching their behavior, then all of a sudden all those negative vibes and pessimist thoughts are faded away. 

 

“How you are snapping those shots of a butterfly” “Don’t they fly away before you can photograph them?’ these are the common questions most of my friends or beginners asked me and my answer be like wait wait wait and wait. It’s all about passion, patient, and time.

I spent almost an hour photographing a picture of Paris Peacock Papilio paris. It was during research in Suryabinayak Municipality in 2016. The project was funded by The Rufford Foundation. I have never seen Paris Peacock before in this area. The green-colored wings and the blue patch on the upper hindwing connected to the inner margin by a narrow, sharply defined green band had definitely magnetic effect to watch this species. I approached near but it flies so fast that I can barely have a clear and stable view. I definitely felt pain in my neck while watching it flying here and there with its powerful ragged flight. Binocular was definitely not an option at the moment. Even at a distance of more than 10m, I could hardly watch it rest. 

I don’t know how does it knows that I’m approaching it. I step ahead so slowly that anyone nearby can see my footstep that a single step could take almost 7-8 seconds. Like I was doing a slow dance. It just flew away in a matter of seconds and fly up the high ground making me impossible to see. But I was determined to take its photo. I keep pursuing it in the grassland, agriculture field, near water stream without knowing that my both legs are already in the water and my trouser was already half wet. The situation even got worsen when it keeps on flying in a high canopy. I kept on pursuing it and determined to photograph a clear single shot at least. I’ve got to know from some text and my senior butterfly researcher that the butterfly definitely rests at some point and that’s the prime moment you should not miss to observe clearly and photograph. Without knowing I had covered almost 300 m aerial distance my almost an hour of devotion finally paid off. I had not a sharp and perfect but identifiable photo at last.

It’s a tedious job to walk and pursue towards the butterfly and have enough good photographs. But, it’s not the same always. Sometimes you got a chance to see and take photographs so quickly and be the lucky one that it rests very close to you and you have got enough shot and it keeps walking around you. At such a
moment even I have taken photographed using my mobile and macro lens.

Definitely, it keeps on flying, and hard to have clear shot and photographs. But as time pass by and keep on pursuing without disturbing it you can definitely have memento watching butterflies and who knows you are holding this tiny beautiful creature in your palm and enjoying the moment to the fullest.