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Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion, AZ

The Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion is open from March to May. It's an extra $2.00 admission after you pay for entry to the gardens. If you are a photographer you can reserve an early slot before the official opening. During the day the pavilion gets very crowded. Early in the season the rest of the gardens may treat you to a wildflower display.
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The common buckeye has 6 beautiful "eyes" on its wings, presumably either to help convince predators that they are part of a much larger creature, or to attract mates.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion buckeye 1
The common buckeye has 6 beautiful "eyes" on its wings, presumably either to help convince predators that they are part of a much larger creature, or to attract mates.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion buckeye 2
The butterfly pavilion actually opens an hour earlier than they advertise. If you make reservations in advance you can bring your camera and get in before all the crowds get there. An added benefit is that the butterflies are just waking up and not active, so they are sitting still for the cameras. You'll notice that none of the photographers are using tripods - it's pointless to go through all the pain of setting it up for a shot only to have the butterfly fly away.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion butterfly pavilion 1

The butterfly pavilion actually opens an hour earlier than they advertise. If you make reservations in advance you can bring your camera and get in before all the crowds get there. An added benefit is that the butterflies are just waking up and not active, so they are sitting still for the cameras. You'll notice that none of the photographers are using tripods - it's pointless to go through all the pain of setting it up for a shot only to have the butterfly fly away.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion butterfly pavilion 2
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes and proboscis. At this distance you can see tiny hairs coming out of its head and thorax.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion gulf fritillary 1
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion gulf fritillary 2

There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion gulf fritillary 3
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion gulf fritillary 4
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how the backlighting illuminates the wings while darkening the background.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia 1

You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes. Any closer and it's going to start looking like an icky bug instead of a nice butterfly.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia 2
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia 3
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes and proboscis. At this distance you can see tiny hairs coming out of its head and eyes.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia closeup 1

You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes and proboscis. At this distance you can see tiny hairs coming out of its head.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia closeup 2
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes and proboscis. At this distance you can see tiny hairs coming out of its head and eyes.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julia closeup 3
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion julias and zebra longwing

There weren't too many of these malachites in the pavilion, so I thought I was fortunate to get this picture.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion malachite
It's virtually guaranteed that at some point during your visit one of the critters will come land somewhere on your body.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion mick and julia
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion painted lady 1

You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion painted lady 3
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion queen butterfly 1
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion queen butterfly 2

There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion question mark 1
Hmmm. Where's the flower? Must just be resting.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion question mark 2
In many of my pictures you can see the proboscis curled up and retracted. Here you can see it extended probing for nectar.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion southern white 1

Quite a lot of detail in the wings for a simple white butterfly.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion southern white 3
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI like how you can see the detail in its eyes. At this distance you can see tiny hairs coming out of its thorax, so many that it looks like fur. Is this a mammal or something?

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion southern white 2
Beautful colors for a black butterfly.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail 1

Ouch, the butterfly must not weigh enough to be affected by the cactus spines.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail 3
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nThe wing detail is exquisite. Amazing how all the little blue dots dither together.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail 5
I love how the backlighting on this swallowtail makes his wings look like they're made of stained glass.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail 7

There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail 8
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nI was taken aback when I noticed the hexagon pattern in this butterfly's eye. Notice also that its proboscis is fully extended into the flower.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion spicebush swallowtail closeup 1
If you know what kind of butterfly this is, please email me.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion unknown butterfly 4

You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nIf you know what kind of butterfly this is, please email me.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion unknown butterfly 2
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nIf you know what kind of butterfly this is, please email me.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion unknown butterfly 3
If you know what kind of moth this is, please email me. You can see all of its eggs attached to the other side of the tree leaf. We were moving the branch all around to get better shots and this thing never budged.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion unknown moth

There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion zebra longwing 2
There are plenty of flowers for the butterflies to feed.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion zebra longwing 3
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion zebra longwing 5

You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nIts proboscis is fully extended into the flower.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion zebra longwing 4
You can get much better closeups by attaching an extension tube in between your current lens and your camera body. An extension tube changes the focal point, so you can get a lot closer. An extension tube has no glass, so you don't have to pay extra for a name brand.\n\nCool red bands along the "shoulders" of its wings.

Desert Botanical Gardens Butterfly Pavilion zebra longwing 1

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