Yesterday's butterfly, fix it in post

 In the early 2000s I was a moderator for an online forum called 2-pop. 2-pop.com was a pioneering web forum focused on desktop video editing, specifically supporting early adopters of Final Cut Pro and small-budget filmmakers. Since I was selling hardware and software into that market it seemed like a good place to be. A 2-pop refers to a 1 kHz tone that is one frame long and placed 2 seconds before the start of a program. It is a simple and effective method of ensuring synchronization between sound and picture in a video or film. 

Fix it in post was often offered as a joke for fixing the impossible. It refers to the ironic, often painful, and humorous reality that many on-set problems deemed fixable later are, in fact, impossible or extremely expensive to fix. It is a common, sardonic mantra in the film industry that serves as a polite way to abandon a failing shot and offload the impossible work onto the editor. 

When I first saw this Papilio rutulus, the western tiger swallowtail yesterday, I was sitting where I'm sitting right now, at my computer, in my office. I haven't seen a western tiger swallowtail in quite awhile. I usually see more eastern giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) butterflies. Anyway, it appeared to be a perfect specimen when I first started to take photos and then I saw its battle scars. While the line, fix it post popped into my head, the butterfly was still beautiful and I wasn't planning to do so.*

 * But then I wondered... How much of a challenge would it be...

 Here's the same shot before I fudged with it. I think the butterfly shows character.

 
For the most part, I like to present photos I've taken the way I see them. Which should not be confused with the way the camera sees subjects. Digital cameras see differently than human eyes by prioritizing raw light data over interpreted perception, often resulting in higher sensitivity in low light, different depth perception, and a narrower dynamic range that requires software to manage. Cameras capture a linear, technical record of photons, whereas the brain dynamically processes, color-corrects, and adjusts brightness to create a stable view. If your camera is adding "scene presets" or "scene modes," that might be a quick way to achieve specific looks or handle tricky lighting without manual adjustments, but these presets often fail by producing unnatural colors and poor exposures. They can also make fixing them in post more difficult. 

Anyway, pretty butterfly. I saw two more today but I wasn't available to take pictures. I felt last year was kind of low on butterfly activity. Hopefully with more rain already this season (.25" here today!), we'll be seeing more butterflies.

Taken, taken so easily
To pass into glass reality
Transform, to transfer, to energy