We all spent the weekend in Branson, Missouri. Mary had been there when she was a kid but I had never been before. We all had a terrific time. We drove up Friday night, slept in Saturday and started out our weekend at the Butterfly Palace. Unbeknownst to us, the Butterfly Palace was celebrating their holiday tradition of White Flight. Long story short, they replaced their inventory of multi-colored butterflies with white butterflies...otherwise known as not as photographically colorful. Oh well, we still managed to have a great time and get some amazing photographs.

Drew, Will and Landon donned their pith helmets and grabbed some magnifying glasses and started examining butterflies.

First, up a butterfly enjoying some fruit.

A black and white butterfly spreading his wings for me.

A butterfly feeding frenzy at the old sugar hole.

Landon and Will take a break to ride some bugs.

If you haven't noticed already, the butterfly photos are pretty good, better than a general lens can normally capture. The secret is that I got an early Christmas gift; a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM macro lens. The lens is phenomenal! All of the butterfly pictures were taken hand held. Check out the below 100% crop of this photo.

You can see his hairs!

Another guy relaxing on the side of his feeding dish, but check out the 100% crop below.

Look at the pattern and texture on his wing!

Finally, check out this guy. Because he was angled almost perfectly perpendicular to me, a larger portion of his body is in focus. Click on the picture to see the fragile little guy in all his 3088 x 2316 glory. Now tell me that's not some incredible detail!

Our three little adventurers; Will, Landon and Drew.

A nice shot of a beautiful black and white wing pattern.

Two butterflies chatting about the day's events over a nice piece of fruit.

Now this was quite amazing. That is a person dressed as a statue...a living statue. And, given her ability to remain perfectly motionless, apparently someone who does share the same caffeine monkey as myself.

Mama and her boys with the living statue.

Just chillin' out on a leaf.

One last butterfly.

Mama butterfly and her boys.