Capturing the elusive butterfly

Although the room is filled with fluttering butterflies, it’s not easy capturing photographs of them. They may be camera shy.

We’re at the Krohn Conservatory’s On Wings of Harmony: Butterflies of the World show. I told you about my son’s wind chimes for this year’s show in an earlier post. You can find my post about last year’s show, Butterflies of Brazil, here.

I have never seen this lovely white butterfly before. It looks like floating lace as it moves about the room. This year it’s my favorite.

This little orange one is working the crowd.

The blues ones are among the most elusive.

They rarely land for long.

But are really beautiful when they do.

Mostly they look like a flash of color.

Or a bright spot of blue light.

Unsuspecting people sit around never realizing what they’re missing right behind them. At times you may feel a light butterfly kiss across your neck as one passes by.

But the many children don’t miss a thing as they strive to catch the elusive butterfly on a piece of paper,

or in their hands.

Truthfully, I’m not sure why the young ones scurry about with concentrated faces and work so hard at it. These butterflies are pretty friendly.

In fact, people often find that two or more are hitching a ride.

In my unofficial, sans control leg, random survey, I deduced that white is the color the butterflies prefer. Next year I’m wearing white.

The butterflies are not all that particular about where they land.

Although it does seem many have a preference for a high location.

The amount of hair or lack of it, doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Again, the unsuspecting person who is simply trying to capture the elusive butterfly on film could be walking around with a live hair ornament and never even know it.

I’ll leave you now with my favorite shots from the day.

Sending you wishes for a great weekend and the grace of butterfly kisses.

 

See more posts about Cincinnati.

Krohn Conservatory— Mobile heralds upcoming Butterfly Show while Spring show enters last days

Krohn Conservatory, Cincinnati, Ohio.

When we visited the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio a couple of weeks ago to see our son’s wind chimes, we decided to stay and enjoy the exotic plants and spring display inside the conservatory.

The minute we step inside the atrium, we are awestruck by suspended colorful origami shapes that fill the air above our heads.

Jan Brown Checco, who is the art administrator for the Cincinnati Park Board, and a team of 20+ volunteers learned how to make modular origami, and began making 100+ forms of all sizes in August. The largest folded forms are made of recycled architectural plans and posters. The origami shapes were skillfully arranged into a mobile that includes coat hangers and recycled DVDS.   Checco describes it as a “giant uber whimsical Seussical mobile” and says it “will be a great partner to some of the other decor elements that use recycled materials.”

The mobile is part of the decorations being installed at the conservatory for the upcoming “On Wings of Harmony – Butterflies of the World” show. This year’s design supports the butterfly show’s “rainbows and universes in harmony” theme.

The mobile will likely be up through the year, with some lighting enhancements for the holiday season.

Checco, along with others, has also designed the previous five annual butterfly shows.

Links to photo essays of the last four butterfly shows can be found at Checco’s website:  www.brownchecco.com. My photos of last year’s butterfly show can be seen here.

The “On Wings of Harmony” butterfly show will run from April 21st to June 24th at the Krohn Conservatory.

Meanwhile, the “Enjoy an early spring with Sparkle and Bling show” continues to dazzle visitors to the Krohn Conservatory.

A beautiful garden of spring flowers fills the room with color and fragrance.

Sparkling bling shoots out of potted gardens on stems, creating a magical environment where fairies might dwell.

Hanging strings of sparkling beads that fall like rain mirror a waterfall surrounded by pure white lilies.

Beautiful, bright, fragrant lilies are everywhere in abundance.

It is difficult to pull myself from this early spring display, but the origami mobile in the atrium hints of good things to come, and the lush, cool plants in the conservatory beyond beckon me.

The sound of a waterfall draws me forth into the dense growth.

Ferns arch over the walkways.

A tunnel tempts me to enter.

Bright fish swirl in the water, a living, moving painting of color.

All along, a mermaid, an original stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, stands guard.

The size, shape, color and structure of the exotic plants amazes me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

See more posts about Cincinnati.

Wind chimes for On Wings of Harmony

Krohn Conservatory, Cincinnati, Ohio with wind chimes hanging from the trellis between the trees.

The visual beauty of Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati and its gardens has now, temporarily, been enhanced by musical wind chimes.

Wind chimes designed by Mark Joseph Grote hanging on the right side of the entrance (when facing the Krohn Conservatory).

Two sets of wind chimes, designed, created, and installed by Mark Joseph Grote now hang on either side of the main entrance to Krohn Conservatory providing a visual and audio element of beauty to an already incredible destination in Cincinnati’s Eden Park.

Largely created from recycled metal parts and cds,

the wind chimes were installed as part of On Wings of Harmony, this year’s butterfly show which will be opening April 21 and running through June 24. (You can see photos of last year’s Butterflies of Brazil show here.)

This is a view of the second set of wind chimes hanging on the left side of the entrance to Krohn Conservatory.

Mark Joseph said that he designed the wind chimes to “make interesting noises” and to “look cool”.

He said that one of the most interesting features of the wind chimes is this spring on the main piece of the left side. When the beads hit the spring they make a little sound that echoes.

Video from the Cincinnati Park Board.

Mark Joseph Grote is finishing his third year in Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati, and as you may have surmised, is our son. You can see more of his artwork at his Tumblr page,  grotemonster.tumblr.com and a video of him painting free-style here.

More photos of our visit to the Krohn Conservatory later.