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The Butterfly images you will see on this page are photographs that I took of butterflies in my own personal collection.
I buy dried butterflies from several suppliers in the world, and as you can see they come in small wax paper envelops.

then I re-humidify the specimens,

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in a re-humidifier filled with with some tap warm water and a couple of onces of Pine-sol to prevent molds from forming. See more details on the photo above.

Then after 2 days I spread and pin them to give each Butterfly a realistic look. They stay pinned on the boards from 12 to 30 days depending on how hard they where to spread. If I want them to keep their positions after I remove them from the boards, the longer they stay on the boards, the better.

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When I take their photos I also endeavour to keep the colours of the Butterfly's as close as possible to their actual colours.

To remove any chances of unwanted shadows, I pin the butterfly away from the white back-ground, using a dense strip of styrofoam, of about 4 to 5 inches long and I also put the light sources (two 250 watt lamps) at angles so as not to project any shadows. Since the butterfly is 4 to 5 inches away from the white wall and with enough light hitting the background behind the butterfly, this permits to see trough the butterflys back side of the wings, as its intriguing designs is shown trough by the light reflecting on the backside of the butterfly from the white wall behind the butterfly. So most of the time you can partially see the design behind the wings overlapping the design in the front of the wings. Without the light reflecting from the white wall behind the butterfly, you would not be able to see as much of the design of the backside of the wings like the way they are showing trough here on my photos. In most case the design behind the wings are more complex and more sophisticated then in the front of the wings, so I think that it is important to see the back side as well.

The best Aperture is (f16) for this kind of photography when using a macro lens, with the camera on a tripod and also use the (2 seconds timer) on the camera to eliminate all vibrations. Its a good idea to take several shots (4 to 6) at different EV (Exposition Compensation Value) then pick out the best one of the lot.

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Only the Scientific names, gender, the Country of Origin and the Wing Span have been displayed. Males will be identified as (M) and the Females as (F). Under each Icons the (ws) = will give you the approximative (Wing-Span in Centimeters) of the top wings from their most upper left position to the most upper right position. This will give you an idea of the size of each butterfly.
The images are displayed here for your enjoyment and reference or study only. I have, and will retain all copyright on the images; however, you may download those images for non-commercial use ONLY like wallpapers on your computer, but they are not to be used in books, magazines, or newspapers and you cannot use those image(s), in any form, in a publication or on the internet to otherwise make a profit from them, without my explicit written permission.

THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS 374 BUTTERFLY.

MY BUTTERFLY ARE HERE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER