fly away…high away…bye bye.” As I was editing my photographs these lyrics from Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” kept running through my head. These photographs were taken last week when I went on a little photo safari with a photo buddy of mine, Vonn, (see more about Vonn here)  to the Butterfly Wonderland located in Scottsdale. Two of her clients highly recommended the place to her. So (cueing up the safari music here) Vonn and I met up at the headwaters of the Amazon Rainforest located right here in Scottsdale, AZ, off the 101 freeway.

I tried out my inexpensive screw on macro lenses for the above two shots.  The first shot is with a +4, the second one is with all three lenses screwed on for a +7 magnification.

Throughout the Butterfly Room there are several of these yellow posts which were covered with butterflies. Vonn suggested that they are drawn to the yellow. When she said that I remembered my football coaching days during the hot, humid nights in August. Those of us that wore yellow coaching shorts were swarmed by mosquitoes. The next day we all wore navy blue.

“When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.”  Anna Pavlova


“I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.” Zhuanga

The butterflies are definitely not shy about landing on anyone.  In fact, as you leave, you go through an airlock to make sure none of the butterflies are catching a free ride with you out of the room.

At the moment I walked into the room, 2 or 3 of them landed on me. A little bit later, just as I was ready to push the shutter button to take a picture, one butterfly landed right on my trigger finger and lingered a bit. I am going to say right here and right now for all to know…that was way too cool!

I will be returning again to this marvelous place again, to spend a bit more time with the butterflies of the Rainforest. And this time, I will be the guy in all yellow.

And not to limit myself to just Elton, this song as well swirled its’ way in and out of my mind.  Sort of like, dueling butterflies.

“So butterfly, here is a song and it’s sealed with a kiss and a thank you miss.”

Lyrics from “Butterfly Lady” by Crazy Town.

The two quotations used in this post were found at Brainy Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/