Nature at its finest
Today I spotted a pale yellow butterfly doing its thing, fluttering from flower to flower in our yard. I hurriedly grabbed the camera and headed out, remembering to go into the menu and change the quality from "better" to "best" (Emily changed it for household inventory photos) as I walked out. I soon spotted the beastie and got a few decent shots.



The butterfly then headed to our larger lantana, the one actually planted in the yard. I followed and managed to get one shot.



I didn't notice at the time, but the butterfly wasn't alone. Apparently the butterfly didn't notice either.

Next thing I know, as I was trying to line up for another shot, the butterfly is fluttering like mad, but not getting anywhere. I started shooting like mad, but only managed a couple shots. Unfortunately I hadn't taken the time to turn off the "preview" (where the camera shows you a copy of your shot before moving on to the next; I've found this preview to be really annoying when dealing with non-cooperative subjects such as hummingbirds and butterflies), so only a few blurred shots worked out.


The butterfly soon escaped. I guess the mantis didn't have a good enough grip on it. I then got a series of shots of the mantis itself, which soon got tired of me. This guy is particularly spooky looking with that small, curled up posterior (vaguely scorpion-esque).



All this reminded me of a cartoon I once saw. The occasion was at my first "rock" concert, at least the first one I ever attended without parents/siblings and for which I paid: Weird Al. The opening act was his mentor, Dr. Demento. One bit of the show was a short (1:30) cartoon called "Bambi Meets Godzilla." So, with no further ado, here it is: