Hakkımda

My name is Alperen Yayla . I was born on 19 April 1995 in Kecioren, Ankara. But my journey with butterflies starts a little later than this. Since I was a child I am interested in nature and wildlife with passion. Watching wildlife documentaries was one of my favorite things.  My father ( Cemal Yayla) who is an important person in my journey. In 2009 He bought a camera ( Nikon D50)  for himself and started to take pictures. After a little while, he started to take pictures of butterflies. One day he took a picture of a Brimstone butterfly. I have fascinated by this camouflage master butterfly and I wanted to start to take pictures of butterflies. In April 2009 we went to a pine forest together and we found a caterpillar and I took my first picture. I opened an account in Fotokritik ( Which was a website for amateur photographers and its no longer available anymore) and uploaded my first picture. My picture took many commends from macro photographers and this encouraged me to go further.

My first picture 

 I started to take macro pictures especially butterflies. I become a part of butterfly observation societies with that I had a great chance to   meet butterfly observers from all over the country.I have become a   part of butterfly societies and learned lots of things about butterflies.

Me taking picture of The Eastern Dappled White(Euchloe ausonia)

 In 2014 my hometown Antalya was chosen for Expo 2016. Antalya   which is a city in the Mediterranean area of Turkey and it is   surrounded by mountains. With that Antalya has diverse habitats and   that makes this city very rich for butterflies ( almost 200 species ).   Nizamettin Şen who was the president of ATAV (Antalya Promotion   Foundation ) wanted to use this richness of Antalya for promoting   Antalya in Expo 2016 because of the reason that the main topic of     the   Expo 2016 was flowers and children. Me, my father (Cemal   Yayla) and Olcay Yeğin ( who was one of the best butterfly observers   in Turkey)  gave our pictures to prepare the book of Butterflies of   Antalya. The book of Butterflies of Antalya is a milestone for   butterfly observers. It is the first book and field guide which contains   butterflies only in one city. I also worked on the writing and editing parts of the book. I have written all the information about butterflies and have chosen the pictures and edited them. All butterfly observers dream on to publish a book and have an exhibition I just did it when I was 19. Our photography exhibiton has been showed in almost everywhere in the city and even after 6 years it continues in the squares and shopping malls. The book of Butterflies of Antalya become a pioneer for butterfly observers. Some observers tried and some published a book for their cities. Beyond everything, it was a great honor for me.

In 2017- 2018, I decided to go abroad as an Erasmus + exchange student. With that, I found myself at Transilvania University of Brasov/Romania. I had a chance to make observations in the Carpathian Mountains in Brasov and I had observed various of rare species in my country( Turkey)  such as  Chequered Skipper (Carterocephalus Palaemon) , Chestnut Heath (Coenonympha Glycerion) , The Black hairstreak (Satyrium Pruni)  and  Hungarian glider (Neptis Rivularis). It was a great adventure for me and I went there again next year and I have seen the Purple emperor (Apatura iris) which was the most magnificent butterfly I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I couldn't take many pictures it flew away too soon but seeing this beauty was enough for me.

It is my 11th year in butterfly observations and I still have the same passion for butterflies and I’m continuing to make observations. I hope you will find the beauty of the wings in this Blog...

From last year while we are  trying to take pictures of Levantine Silverline (Cigaritis cilissa) :)