A new direction in photography

The world of butterflies:

by Gamini Corea

I am a keen wildlife photographer and now, being denied the pleasure of visiting Yala, Wilpattu and maybe other parks in time to come, not only because of the security situation but perhaps due to congestion, I wondered how I could widen my interests in photography.

Happily enough, I found a more interesting and a challenging diversion much more demanding and more fascinating than the photography of animals and birds.

The world of butterflies, not only opens a whole vista of knowledge but also a very broad range of subjects to photograph or sketch.
Unlike animals or birds, one could be in your own garden or in the neighbourhood. You can spend hours observing the behaviourial patterns of various kinds of butterflies, discovering how they lay eggs, the caterpillar and pupal stages, and the final stage of flying away maybe all from one place!

Infact, an ardent butterfly enthusiast, Dr. Sam Jayawardena, breeds some of them at home and enjoys photographing and recording the various stages of their life cycle. Recently I purchased a book authored by Rajika Gamage a wildlife conservationist titled," An illustrated guide to the butterflies of Sri Lanka."

I must say that this is one of the most informative and comprehensive work done on the study of butterflies, in recent times. He has taken great pains and has obviously spent so much of his time collecting data, doing sketches to precise measurements, adding colour to absolute near perfection and offering the lover of butterflies a publication of a lifetime, which in my opinion is a must in the library.

Gamage has photographed the actual plants and leaves which are particular to feeding habits and 'pasting' the sketches of butterflies over them in the final print, is the most valuable characteristic of this publication. He has done the sketches of both male and female of the species.

Their actual size, the likely plants they feed on, and the approximate elevation at which they are normally to be found, is educative indeed, and the author should be truely commended for this presentation which I am sure, will be very much appreciated and treasured by many.

There are quite a number of butterflies that are endemic to Sri Lanka and of them, a few are listed as 'endangered' in the 2007 Red list of threatened fauna and flora of Sri Lanka published recently, and hence it is obligatory on our part to help in their protection, for the sake of future generations.

And to the lover of wild life photography, with the denial of visits to Yala, Wilpattu, and perhaps other parks the study and photography of butterflies and dragonflies, open a new direction in photography.

Yes, you can start at home!