I Give You Butterflies ©Jane Davenport. Love it? It's available in my store!

Sophisticated Ladies © JAne Davenport

It’s been a full-on week! I have had some BIG creative projects to kick of, which always take herculean strength to get rolling. Of course once the ball is on the go, it’s easy to pick up the pace, slow down a little, alter course or change direction! But I feel as if I have been trying to shape all my creative energy into the actual ball itself. Scattered energy,  Aaaaaargh!

So at the end of my mental gymnastics week, I got ‘told off’ by an associate. I could hear in the person’s voice and the chaotic background that they were under pressure, and our conversation just kept on esculating until the person became aggressive. When I say ‘our’ conversation I am being generous, as I didn’t get to chime in…yes, we had a problem to sort out, but I was addressed as if I was a naughty child. It’s been a looong time since I have been spoken to in that tone. I was too shocked/tired/scared(!) to stand up for myself, explain or state my version of events, so I took on all the venting and finger wagging and slung away with my tail between my legs. I wonder how long I will be mentally hiding under the bed from this person!

I was worried that the situation would totally derail me from my other projects, because I felt really bad about the way I had been spoken to, and why I would not ‘fight back’.  I am just not good at confrontation and I will go a long way to avoid it. It freaks me out. I need time to think about things. I like to ponder all the angles. I take everything personally. Blech!

Anyway! pretty pink saved me from fingernail biting. I didn’t have time to worry about it all day yesterday, as I was in my Byron Bay gallery. It doesn’t happen often, but I enjoy it when I am working there! Seeing my work on the gallery walls, chatting to people, seeing what they like, what images people linger in front of,  answering curious questions about my artwork. Helping people make selections is fun!

And maybe because I was still feeling a bit shakey in the back of my brain, I was really attracted to the soft pinks and greys of, the above images “I Give You Butterflies’ and ‘Sophisticated Ladies’ hanging in the gallery. They comforted me. I am feeling a whole new level of love for these images – some of my most popular. They reminded me how lucky I am to do what I love and how hard I have worked to achieve a level of technical proficiency that allows me to get to an image I see in my head! I feel the need to create some friends for these two. Yes its winter, so finding bugjects will be a challenge, but where there is a will there is a way, right?! So after my lovely Gallery day and this chat on my blog, I am feeling all better now! Yay!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend (and nobody gives you a ticking off!)

Choose Happiness,

x Jane

Paper Kite Butterfly

the beautiful Paper Kite butterfly

Scientific name: Idea leuconoe

This large, striking, black-and-white butterfly flits and floats in the air, like a piece of paper drifting in the wind. Its huge 9 to 10cm wingspan is accentuated by spectacular pattern. It is also known as the Rice Paper butterfly and Large Tree Nymph.

This GORGEOUS tropical butterfly has managed to spread its wings all over the world, simply by being beautiful. You may not have seen it in the wild (I haven’t yet!), but chances are if you have been to a butterfly house, then you have witnessed its loveliness. As you can see, it is attracted to red flowers, so wear a red top or hat if you want one to land on you!

It is a popular butterfly to have in captivity at Butterfly houses because of its size and slower flying pattern. I have photographed them in butterfly houses in Germany, all across the USA, in Australia, Thailand and South Africa. I created these images at ‘That Butterfly Place’ in Branson, Missouri.

In the wild it is found from India through Malaysia and SE Asia.  It is bred commercially in the Phillipines and Malaysia and each chrysalis carefully packed and sent to new butterfly houses around the world.

The chrysalis and newly emerged Paper kite butterflies

The chrysalis is just as beautiful as the butterfly in my opinion. They are yellow with metallic gold and black markings as in the above images. You can see the empty chrysalis with the emerged adult butterflies stretching their newly freed wings.

As caterpillars they eat plants with bitter-tasting alkaloids, which in turn give them a bitter taste and protect them from predation even as butterflies. I look forward to photographing the caterpillars one day…

Yesterday Angus and I set off to the delight that is BrisneyLand… sorry BrisVegas..oops… Brisbane! We headed straight (after a short deviation to Trade Tools for Angus – drill and other assorted rufty-tufty buildery things) for the Cultural Precinct with 2 missions firmly in mind.

1. ‘The Butterfly Man of Kuranda’ on display at the Queensland Museum – which was beautifully presented, but very small!

Woven alongside the 28 showcases of fascinating insects is the story of Frederick Parkhurst Dodd, a Gentleman Collector. Back when being a ‘Naturalist’ was a legitimate, scientifically respected  past time (well, just quietly, I think being a Naturalist is slowly regaining its clout.). His original bug collecting box and butterfly net is on display and some lovely stories of how he used his adventurous sons to do the difficult up-to-the-tree-tops collecting for him!

My favourite case was where he had written out a  poem  in hundreds of cream coloured moths, and signed the authors name in small beetles.

details from 'The Butterfly Man of Kuranda'

and

2. The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art aka the mercifully shorter APT6 at the Queensland Art Gallery

- which was…hmmmm… the highlight for me,  aside from the artwork below, was the bookshop. I got  some GREAT books: A Mark Ryden Micro-portfolio and  ‘The Upset ‘( and immediately did the wrong thing when I got home by looking them up on Amazon where they are a third of the price. Note to self: don’t do that.).

My favourite piece was a glass bauble encrusted elk created by Kohei Nawa. PixCell-Elk#2 was placed in a white room with even lighting from all sides and the ceiling. What made this artwork so extraordinary, was that it looked fascinating and mysterious from a distance, and it just became more and more interesting as I got closer. The reflections through the elks glass skin made for some interesting photos. Really and truly fascinating. I stood in awe of it for quite some time.

workshop image - fiddler beetle

What a Day! Lots of energy and fun! I set up lots of shots with beautiful, sculptural flower shapes and my students were able to experiment with different lighting techniques, lenses and approaches to each subject. We worked outside and photographed dragonflies and I found a delightful lime green preying mantis that performed like a true superstar!

Here is the information about the workshop, just in case you feel like joining in!

Macro and Close-up Photography Workshop
Saturday, January 16, 2010

9am-4pm

Cost $350 inc GST per person.

Jane Davenport is an internationally renowned photographic artist based in Byron Bay. Her large-scale outdoor art installations have toured across the world, been enjoyed by millions and featured extensively in the media. Jane’s is Australia’s most successfully licensed photographic artist with card, stationery books and poster ranges available globally.

Jane has taught many photo workshops, but this will be the
first in her spacious Byron Bay studio. This is a very rare chance to work alongside her. You will leave full of inspiration, new skills and the courage to fully embrace your image making potential!

Jane will focus on the close-up and macro world of photography as there are many elements that relate only to this fascinating genre of image-making. Of course, many of the skills you will learn can be applied to any type of subject from landscapes to portraits. You will work with creating arresting still-life compositions and move on to the very challenging and rewarding realm of live subjects. You will work inside the studio and outdoors.
This intensive workshop suits photography lovers of all skill levels!

You will be creating images throughout the day and Jane will conduct a review of your work.

To book click here!

To see more of Jane Davenport’s work visit the gallery or click here for her Limited Edition prints. You are welcome to call the studio (AEST 10 to 6pm) 02 6680 8550, or use the email link in the sidebar.

My last two butterflies ‘hatched’ this morning. A male and female Cairns birdwings. They are just so spectacular! As with all the other butterflies, I have allowed them free-flight throughout the whole studio (its within a great big warehouse). They have plenty of room to fly where they choose. I have mass of flowers to tempt them.
I am arranging the flowers in interesting shapes, and then waiting for the butterflies to come to me. It is working surprisingly well. I am employing all my powers of wishful thinking for where I would like the butterflies to come and sit.

These are not finished images, but you can see the fun I am having with my beautiful flying flowers!

Cairns birdwing butterfly-Jane Davenport

Cairns birdwing butterfly-Jane Davenport

Cairns birdwing 1 butterfly-Jane Davenport

Yay the Birdwing butterflies ‘hatched’ from their giant chrysalis yesterday! And I have been in hot pursuit of them ever since…

I now have two Ulysees butterflies flying around my studio. I have lots of flowers everywhere for them to drink from and they seem to be happy gliding around. I have a huge space for them to cruise around in and I am really enjoying photographing them.
I have often looked at butterflies and wondered how on earth they survive hungry birds everyday. But after  chasing these butterflies with my camera, I have a new found appreciation for just how unpredictable their flight pattern can be!

Photographing my bugjects this way is proving to be incredibly free-form. Usually I set-up and plan my shot to the most infinite of details.

Ulysees butterfly in my Studio

This morning I went on a Butterfly watching walk with Kath Vail, an environmental campaigner and butterfly expert in the Byron Shire. The weather has been unsettled for the past few days and is still very humid – perfect for butterflies! I learned that many butterflies are attracted to hilltops and males wage heated territorial battles. So while wandering amongst the zooming butterflies was utter magic, trying to capture a pic was like trying to remember a dream, always just a little bit out of  reach.

Blue Triangle butterflies in a territorial dispute....

I was surprised to find I managed to capture anything at all, because the butterflies were just SO fast and unpredictable. This image prompted me to look through my vast collection of butterfly images looking for pics I had taken of them in full flight.

I was surprised at how long I have been struggling with this unrealised mission and how much film (both roll and digital) I have dedicated towards it. I have many, many pics of movement blurred butterflies tearing along garden paths, above tree-tops and across skies.

For example, I visited the extraordinary Chicago Botanic Gardens a few years ago, and after hours and hours of enjoying the gardens and all the bugs in them, spotted two large butterflies playing tag across the carpark (which was an arboretum in itself).

I love these images because they remind me of magnificent days spent in sunshine with time to admire nature and marvel at the world. They aren’t magic images to anyone except me. They inspire me to keep experimenting and trying to overcome the impossible and capture an image that fully conveys the beauty I am witnessing and joy I feel when butterfly watching.