My favourite section of the Houston Museum of Natural Science is the Cockrell Butterfly Center. This little section of rain forest (including a waterfall) is housed in a glass dome and contains hundreds of brightly coloured butterflies flitting around. If you are lucky, they will sometimes land on you (remember to smear yourself with fruit juice before arriving 🙂 ).
Aside from the overall spectacle of such a huge number of butterflies, the center is also appealing because it gives me a chance to play with my macro gear. This time round, I broke out the Tamron 90mm macro lens and Nikon macro flash and spent an hour or so getting friendly with the residents. Here’s a Julia butterfly that was kind enough to sit for a portrait.
If you are visiting, especially in the summer months, I’ve found that the dome is a very much more pleasant place in the morning. Once the sun starts shining through that glass, the temperature and humidity soars and you find yourself in a sweat bath pretty quickly. In the morning, however, the weather in there is very pleasant and no shower is required as soon as you leave.
Pretty good pic, nature is always best.
Awesome and detailed capture Dave!!
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