66 Nebraskaland • June 2023
THE LAST STOP
By Chris Helzer
A CATERPILLAR MORNING
I'm very fortunate to be a photographer who rarely
works with assignments or deadlines. Instead, I take my
camera for a walk whenever the light is beautiful and
I'm in the mood to wander and explore. I don't usually
have a preconceived idea of what I might find, and I like
it that way.
I was on a sandbar along the edge of the Niobrara
River. I'd chosen the location because I knew light would
hit it quickly after the sun broke above the horizon, but
also because I'd seen a lot of frogs, insects and flowers on
the same sandbar in previous years. Since I'd had prior
experience, I headed straight for a little pool of water
in the middle of the large island to see if there were any
frogs about. It seemed as good a place as any to start.
Before I got to the pool, however, I was distracted by
numerous little fuzzy caterpillars feeding on wetland
rushes. "Well," I thought, "It looks like it's going to be a
caterpillar morning!"
There were at least a dozen little critters, each between
1½ and 2 inches in length. Sunlight was reflecting
wonderfully off bundles of spiny hairs protruding
from bright orange bands around their pale bodies. I
knelt down with my tripod and macro lens and tried to
photograph them from all angles.
One caterpillar in particular caught my interest
because it was actively eating, and its face was fully
visible near the chewed-off end of a leaf. I positioned my
tripod and camera so I was looking down into its huge,
mottled eyes. I'm pretty sure I gasped softly at that point
because I was so excited about the lighting. Not only
was the sun illuminating the eyes of the caterpillar, it
was also highlighting its hairs beautifully. The gorgeous
orange and white spines on the body were in soft focus
in the background, but the real winners were the long,
sproodly hairs framing its face. Yes, the word "sproodly"
is made up. I can't help that it's the best term to describe
those amazing hairs.
I did end up photographing a few other things on that
sandbar, including a cute little snail and a couple of
insects, but the lion's share of my time was spent admiring
those caterpillars. I never did make it to that pool. That's
OK — it had turned out to be a caterpillar morning.
