Even though I’ve lived in Colorado for a very long time, I just never made it to The Butterfly Pavilion in Denver. Technically, it’s in Westminster, but it all runs together. Apparently it’s their 20th year of operation. Not that I expect I’ll be able to see ALL the things in Colorado. Highly unlikely. But it’s one of those I’ve wanted to go to for some time now.

The first Saturday of each month, they allow about 25 photographers in an hour earlier than the general public so that they can use tripods. The space for humans isn’t that massive, so during normal business hours, tripods aren’t allowed. You can stay longer once it’s open to the rest of the world, but no more tripod.

So Hazel*, my fellow photo junkie, and I made a trip north (and a bit west) a couple of weeks ago to check out the butterflies as the sun began to shine in their beautiful, tropically humid world. Of course, we made the obligatory Starbucks stop (we had to meet someplace, after all) before heading out of town at o’dark thirty (aka 6:00 a.m.). When we arrived, it was rather windy, so we skipped out on perusing the grounds outside. The morning light was beautiful, but the wind was just too much to have any photographic fun.

It was a pleasure to be there with only a couple dozen other people who totally understand whatever weird photographer quirks you may have when trying to capture the shot. Having the tripod was a plus, although there were times when you just had go handheld.

I loved getting to see such colorful and interesting varieties of butterflies. So much more than is typical out in the backyard. Some sat still the entire time we were there, leading me to wonder if they weren’t statues put there to trick the other butterflies like the zoo has. Okay, not really. I know they were real. At least I’m fairly sure they were.

I don’t think this one moved one iota the entire two hours we were there. The wings look like velvet when you see them up close. The colors are just amazing!!

Another “never moved” butterfly.

Others flew around constantly and landed only long enough for me to point my camera in their general direction before taking off again.

The current featured butterfly. The Owl Butterfly. Pretty cool how their wings look like owl eyes and they can camouflage so well. If you look closely, you’ll see a little snail down on the left side of the tree. Silly little photobomber.

Little hitchhiker.

Pretty butterflies. Fun photography. Good times.

* Name changed to protect the innocent. Or at least she who doesn’t know I’m talking about her on my blog.