PrettyTiny Film Company -- random pix (Apr. 27)

[Alliecat]

Thank you very much, everybody!    I'm glad you enjoyed them.  I have fun shooting them.  Would never have guessed after all those years raising them that I'd end up shooting photos of them with dolls!

And the one with Sara & the multitude of butterflies is amazing, how did you get so many to land at once?

Well, again, they are all just hatched.  None of the butterflies in these photos has had their first flight yet!
(Their first real flight... technically, they occasionally fall off or flap a bit and land on the ground.  I pick them up & put them back.  First flight -- the real one -- is preceded by a fun little "preflight check" of motions, then a flap or 2 and they soar up into the sky.  It's lovely to watch.)
So the process basically goes like this:  Hunt through neighbour's milkweed garden (the deer ate mine) for caterpillars.  Bring them home, house in jars, feed lots of milkweed, wait for them to pupate (make their chrysalis).  Wait another 7-10 days.  Chrysalis turns "black", which is actually just clear, & you can see the colours of the butterfly inside.  
Butterfly hatches, ex-pands wings with fluid from body, then hangs from chrysalis a couple hours while its wings harden.  Then it will climb somewhere, if available, preferably into the sun, where it starts flexing its wings till it feels ready to fly.  This could be a short time, or all day if it's not very warm.
Because they're in jars, I get them out as soon as possible, on a stick.  I put the stick in a glass & leave them in a box with sheer-curtain windows to wait for the wings to harden.  Once the wings are not floppy anymore, you can handle them pretty easily cos they'll climb on a finger or a stick or a doll, but still aren't ready to fly.  So for the photos it's just a case of taking them out, setting up my models, & then putting the butterflies on them.  This time of year, they won't likely fly away in the middle of the shoot because did I mention it's so bleeping cold???  They'd fly a lot sooner if it was hot.  On a warm day when I take the box outside they're sometimes flapping around inside & just fly out & go.
So yes, it does take some patience to position them, definitely moving slowly so as not to damage anyone, but it's not a question of waiting for them to land.  Once they fly, they're gone.  They'll go up in a tree & sit for a while longer before starting their journey to Mexico.
So that's how the PTFCo butterfly-studio division works  For those who want to watch one hatch, here's a 3:49 video from a couple years ago.  


Monarch hatching 3min by Alliecat09, on Flickr