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butterflies

W

Winston Rockwell

New member
here are a couple more - not up to the standard of "Refraction", i fear, but then, as i mentioned, that was a once-in-a-lifetime shot... ;)

these were taken at a local zoo's butterfly exhibit. this one i call "Formation", for obvious reasons... not a photographically exceptional shot, but i liked the positioning of the two black swallowtails, and wanted to catch them before one of them flitted off... shot with a Panasonic FZ20, 12x zoom (~430mm equivalent), 1/160 @ f4.0...

P1030885sm.jpg


this second shot was taken during a later visit, with my 30D and Sigma 80-400 at 280mm, 1/400 @ f6.3...

IMG_4525small.jpg
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It's unfortunate that you can't have angels guiding you every day. They were sleeping this time!

You demonstrate why these butterflies are so magnetic creatures to watch and capture a prolonged look at.

The wings of the second are natures works of art.

The 2cd one is on a flower platform that is perhaps over saturated. and rather too much OOF. Also for the composition, you have little choice with these things since they are so transient.

They do not pose! :)

I'd consider building the rest of a flower platform from your other shots as this is a great picture but missing in the balance, as far as my thoughts are at this time.

The B1 bomber formation profiles of the butterflies in the first picture are fascinating. However, the DOF here punishes you.

How long are these butterflies available?

Asher
 
W

Winston Rockwell

New member
actually, Asher, i rather like the DOF in the first one... having the rear butterfly out of focus gives a sense of depth and keeps the eye focused on the one in front, which presents nice details. the main thing i wanted to capture with this image was the sense of visual repetition, the lines of the wings, etc.

i know the flower in the 2nd shot is a bit too "hot"; i suppose i could try to selectively de-saturate it a bit, but i'm not sure how to go about it (still a novice when it comes to Photoshop...). at the time i took this shot, i'd only had my 30D about 2 months, and was still very much in the process of figuring out how to use it. not that i've mastered the beast by any means yet, but i do feel much more comfortable with it now than i did 6 months ago...

the zoo offers this butterfly exhibit every year from May until September, so i can easily go back this summer... and probably will!
 
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