Morning Frost on the Prairie

Well the raspberry patch at Prairie Hill Farm Studio may be done a couple weeks earlier then we're used to; had a good frost this morning. Guess it's down to rationing to get us through the winter!

I was hoping to photograph more Monarchs in the prairie here before it came to this, maybe we can still draw some butterflies migrating through from Minnesota and Ontario?

Monarch feeding on Liatris aspera

Early morning photography on the tallgrass in the late summer or fall is an elixir for the soul; occasionally the colors and subject matter come together as if there were no better time.

The Monarch Butterflies love Liatris and the L. aspera (Rough Blazing Star) is one of the last ones to really hang on well to the prairie remnant hillside here.

I've always felt isolating the background with closeup subjects like this is the best way to present them. It means a much shallower depth of field than you might like for the main subject (in this case - the Monarch and the Liatris) but trying to keep the film plane as parallel to that subject as possible, helps minimize that drawback. Keeping the butterfly's head and eyes in focus is probably the most critical issue...our visual process will tend to treat it as "in focus" if you do.

I'm going to hold out for the warm weather next week to bring more Monarchs visitors; hopefully I'll be here when they show up!