Krohn Conservatory & Butterfly Show

I took the day off yesterday since I had a follow-up with the orthopedist for my shoulder and physical therapy later in the day. In between I went to the Krohn Conservatory for the annual butterfly show. I thought a weekday would be a good time to go since kids are in school. With fewer people I hoped to have an easier time getting some photos with the new camera. Boy was that a bad assumption! I got there about a half-hour after opening and there were two school buses parked outside. It didn't occur to me that schools would have field trips to the conservatory this time of year. There were kids running around all over the place! There were also a lot of moms with kids and/or strollers taking in the exhibit. It was pretty crowded, but I got some good shots anyway.

Since it was a cloudy day, they gave passes for a return visit since the butterflies aren't as active when it is cloudy. However, there were many flying around. They also had a couple volunteers brushing some type of nectar on your hands so the butterflies would land on you. A lot of people had butterflies landing on their hands. The kids eyes really light up when they "catch" a butterfly that way. This year they had a lot of butterflies from Australia and some were quite large! I collected the best of my butterfly photos in a Flickr set you can see here.

I also went through the other non-butterfly rooms to get some plant and flower photos. It was cloudy and so the light wasn't the best. Nevertheless, I got some nice shots in the orchid room. Even though the light was flat, I think the flowers look better in the natural light rather than with a flash. The flower and plant photos are in a Flickr pool here.