Nicest things to do is finding a butterfly

[Andre]

Thanks ~Christina~, that reminds me, I need to visit the greenhouses of the botanical garden of the Univerrsity of Utrecht soon. They have a tropical butterfly exhibition this season.

Hmm the English version doesn't seem to work but there are online translators.

And I would not bother about a butterfly collection. A butterfly picture collection is much better.

 

[~christina~]

Thanks ~Christina~, that reminds me, I need to visit the greenhouses of the botanical garden of the Univerrsity of Utrecht soon. They have a tropical butterfly exhibition this season.

Ooh you have to try to get a sequence of flight shots again. The variety of butterflies that you have taken pictures of is more than what there is available around here. (I speak of conservatories and not of native species)

And I would not bother about a butterfly collection. A butterfly picture collection is much better.

I agree that a photo collection is better but it's easier when you have a macro lens at your disposal.

 

[Andre]

Ooh you have to try to get a sequence of flight shots again. The variety of butterflies that you have taken pictures of is more than what there is available around here. (I speak of conservatories and not of native species)

Yes I'm am aiming for that but after the heat wave

I agree that a photo collection is better but it's easier when you have a macro lens at your disposal.

True, but it's not the only one. If you put a +1 dioptry close up lens on a moderate telelens (100-200mm for instance), you can surprise yourself already.

Also right here you can hire photographic equipment for a day or so, so you could check out the possibilities of all kind of lenses.

 

[~christina~]

[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7408/dsc0831vk.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6605/dsc0063yp.jpg

 

[Andre]

Sorry I missed that ~christina~ that's certainly a good start. These look very small, don't they?

 

[~christina~]

Sorry I missed that ~christina~ that's certainly a good start. These look very small, don't they?

The pictures you mean? I could post larger shots of them. It is much more difficult to take pictures of small insects when you use a 300mm lens.

 

[Andre]

300mm? a prime or a basic 70-300mm zoom? Yes 300mm is not very useable, but try to put on such a thing:

+1 and +2 are probably the most useable and if you have a zoom, mid range ~100 to 150 may work better, it also gives you the "sweet spot" of the lens (honi soit qui mal y pense) combined with an aperture Av ~ 11. Also not sure if the VR (if available) works correctly with close up lenses, you may have to turn that off. Also use flash to get a sufficient short shutter speed because things move around a lot.

 

[Andre]

Found another butterfly greenhouse. A few of today's captures:

 

[lisab]

WOW :!) those are spectacular, Andre!

 

[drizzle]

Is it my eyes or are the wings transparent?! I's gorguoes! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Andre]

You're welcome, yes it's the http://www.hemmy.net/2006/04/30/glasswing-butterfly/ .

 

[GeorginaS]

As always, Andre, I'm amazed.

 

[Andre]

Maybe a few more then,

 

[Borg]

Wonderful pictures Andre!

Here's a visitor whose picture I captured several years ago.

 

[~christina~]

300mm? a prime or a basic 70-300mm zoom? Yes 300mm is not very useable, but try to put on such a thing:

+1 and +2 are probably the most useable and if you have a zoom, mid range ~100 to 150 may work better, it also gives you the "sweet spot" of the lens (honi soit qui mal y pense) combined with an aperture Av ~ 11. Also not sure if the VR (if available) works correctly with close up lenses, you may have to turn that off. Also use flash to get a sufficient short shutter speed because things move around a lot.

There are very few lens attachments available at the stores that I usually frequent. It's sad. I purchased a circular polarizer and was not impressed with the result. The focus and sharpness of the images produced were of low quality.

Why doesn't VR work with the close up lenses?

close ups of the pictures I posted before:

[PLAIN]http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6120/dsc0063cr.jpg
[PLAIN]http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5982/dsc0831cr.jpg

 

[dlgoff]

I could see some of these as wall hangings Andre. Such crisp bright colors. Lovely.

 

[HeLiXe]

I <3 this thread!

 

[DaveC426913]

I <3 this thread!

I have never understood this icon.

I always think it looks like an a**-hat.

 

[HeLiXe]

Well at least it looks like something to you...when I first saw it, all I thought was "less than three" Maybe it would be a better emoticon for *$%hat than a heart...

 

[turbo]

Butterflies <3 coneflowers, as do bees and hummingbirds. The bush is right in back of my monitor so I can peek out from time to time to see who's here.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Not a butterfly, but a winged visitor came by yesterday evening

http://a.imageshack.us/img819/3396/beez.jpg

Notes: Luminar 63mm, f/4.5 (wide open); 1.5 second exposure.

 

[Andre]

Nice Andy, but would that visitor be so kind and sit still for one and a half second?

I had rejected this picture as first choice at first, because it was underexposed. It's likely that the control mechanism cut off the flash early due to the overwhelming light return from the flash due to those flowers close by.

But the butterfly (~Christina~, did you identify it already?) was hovering as can be seen from the folded legs and yet it was quite crisp, so I decided to unreject it and do some RAW post processing, to get rid of the noise due to the underexposure.

This is the full shot

and a 50% crop (showing the noise too)

 

[DaveC426913]

Beautiful.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Beautiful butterflies and bees, indeed!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Nice Andy, but would that visitor be so kind and sit still for one and a half second?

I had rejected this picture as first choice at first, because it was underexposed. It's likely that the control mechanism cut off the flash early due to the overwhelming light return from the flash due to those flowers close by.

But the butterfly (~Christina~, did you identify it already?) was hovering as can be seen from the folded legs and yet it was quite crisp, so I decided to unreject it and do some RAW post processing, to get rid of the noise due to the underexposure.

Nice photo- excellent sharpness as well; what lens are you using?

Yes, the bee not only sat still for 1.5 seconds (not to mention the lack of a breeze), but didn't mind me sticking the camera in its face... I should probably get a flash...

 

[Andre]

Nice photo- excellent sharpness as well; what lens are you using?

All the butterfly pix of these last two weeks that I posted here were make with a Canon EOS 550D and a EF 100mm Macro f2.8 USM

Obviously hand held, and mandatory small aperture (f11-16) and short shutter speed (1/200s) you could either choose for ISO 12,800 and get pea soup noise texture or add a flash and shoot crisp with 100 ISO.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Excellent... "Canon's most fun per dollar lens" :)

 

[Andre]

yes, absolutely, it is.

 

[turbo]

Here's some competition for Andy in the notabutterfly category. I told you that coneflowers attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds...

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

 

[Andre]

To illustrate that, here is a life size crop of that Morpho menelaus that I posted earlier in this thread:

from:

Found another butterfly greenhouse. A few of today's captures:

...

...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Here's some competition for Andy in the notabutterfly category. I told you that coneflowers attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds...

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

To illustrate that, here is a life size crop of that that I posted earlier in this thread:


from:

I'm seeing the advantages of a flash.

 

[turbo]

No flash in my case, Andy. Just a little Panasonic point-and-shoot in Macro AF mode. I love that little pocket camera.

 

[HeLiXe]

Here's some competition for Andy in the notabutterfly category. I told you that coneflowers attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds...

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

@_@ Oooooooooooooh pretty!

 

[turbo]

@_@ Oooooooooooooh pretty!

Thanks! Snapshot with a little DMC-ZS3 in macro mode. I'd love to have a Canon 100mm macro (fun!), but for now, I'm getting by with what I've got.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Thanks! Snapshot with a little DMC-ZS3 in macro mode. I'd love to have a Canon 100mm macro (fun!), but for now, I'm getting by with what I've got.

I'm really impressed! Just shows I need to work on my technique... :)