There were barely any flowers at all in Sapo National Park, probably because it was in the end of the dry season – but the butterflies were everywhere! Huge, colorful, blue, orange, black, yellow. But so flighty. Not one allowed me to get close. I wish I’d had my telelens. It’s great for photographing skittish butterflies with.
And I have these thoughts, always when I’m around many butterflies, about how I should have made that into a career instead. Studied biology and become a photographing entomologist traveling the world in search of the rare butterflies. They’re fascinating creatures, for many reasons.
They are these fleeting thoughts, the ones about entomology or geochemistry (yes, I’ve considered that too), of how life might have been easier if I’ve chosen a classic science specialty instead of my current very vague “sustainability science” generalist career. I appreciate order. I feel like order is something an entomologist, or chemist for that matter, has to live by. Maybe I would have found it easier to stay on track in that kind of structure.
Or maybe it would have taken all the fun and wonder out of the flight of a butterfly. We’ll never know.
Katja Malmborg 