Nicest things to do is finding a butterfly

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andre
  • Start date Start date
Click For Summary
The discussion centers around the experience of visiting butterfly greenhouses, where participants share their admiration for the vibrant colors and beauty of butterflies. Users describe the atmosphere of these conservatories, highlighting their humid environments filled with diverse butterfly species. Photography tips are exchanged, with suggestions for improving butterfly shots, such as adjusting shutter speed and aperture for better focus and clarity. Participants also share their own butterfly photographs, discussing techniques and equipment used, including macro lenses. The conversation touches on nostalgia for childhood collections of butterflies and insects, while also emphasizing the enjoyment of capturing these creatures through photography. Overall, the thread showcases a community of butterfly enthusiasts sharing experiences, tips, and beautiful images.
  • #61


Andy Resnick said:
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.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #62


Excellent... "Canon's most fun per dollar lens" :)
 
  • #63


yes, absolutely, it is.
 
  • #64


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

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

beecone.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • #65


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

15pjv2b.jpg



from:

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

...

vrudyp.jpg


...
 
  • #66


turbo-1 said:
Here's some competition for Andy in the notabutterfly category. I told you that coneflowers attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds... :-p

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

Andre said:
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.
 
  • #67


No flash in my case, Andy. Just a little Panasonic point-and-shoot in Macro AF mode. I love that little pocket camera.
 
  • #68


turbo-1 said:
Here's some competition for Andy in the notabutterfly category. I told you that coneflowers attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds... :-p

(Fibonacci sequence, anybody?)

@_@ Oooooooooooooh pretty!
 
  • #69


HeLiXe said:
@_@ 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.
 
  • #70


turbo-1 said:
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... :)
 
  • #71


This is about the closest you'd get, category: almost-a-butterfly or pond damselflies.

This is a minimum range shot 1:1 macro of a yet to determine species. It's total length estimated just short of 2 in. Image reduced to 16%

2vn48yd.jpg


The lack of DOF and the movement of the reed (and camera :rolleyes: ) precludes manual focussing, lock the focus and readjust the composition. So I used the focus setting "AI Servo", focussing continuously. As a consequence the head is centered in the picture and not a lot of body is visible.

A 100% crop, showing the narrow DOF.

dg03tk.jpg
 
  • #73


Andy Resnick said:
I'm starting to get better: here's a 100% crop using a 24mm macro, stopped down to f/11 or so:
Very nice!
 
  • #74


Why does it look like pictures taken at my lavender bush?
 
  • #75


Borek said:
Why does it look like pictures taken at my lavender bush?

Howdy, neighbor!:)
 
  • #77


Andy Resnick said:
I want to be able to take pictures like this:

Don't feel alone
 
  • #78
Andre said:
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.

I still stand by my original guess of the butterfly being a Queen Alexandra's Birdwing.
I found this picture of a closed winged butterfly which looks similar to what you have in your picture.
http://www.arkive.org/queen-alexandras-birdwing/ornithoptera-alexandrae/

Edit: It seems that there are a variety of "Birdwing" butterfly species which generally all have the red body and yellow abdomen.
 
Last edited:
  • #79


So I went to the butterfly greenhouse in the botanical garden of the University of Utrecht today, right, the one with the paleomagnetic laboratory, https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=2304947#post2304947 , the last weekend it is open.

I saw this:

9k9egh.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #80


Woah :!) Beautiful Andre. Do you have a larger size? I'd like to set it as my desktop screen :)
 
  • #81


Very beautiful Andre.
 
  • #82


Wow, very beautiful picture, Andre! I love those cute little butterflies!
 
  • #83


Thanks, all and for drizzle the full format picture, uncropped http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/IMG_2379hdn.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #84


Wonderful! Cheers Andre :)
 
  • #86


Another butterfly greenhouse today. The wettest hottest so far. I had to change shirts, great that it's cool outside today.

The star of the show

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but1.jpg

More in close up

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but2.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but3.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but4.jpg

now, these little yellow dots? Pollen? parasite? parasite eggs?:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but5.jpg

Not the star of the show, but the shot is esthetically the most pleasing IMO:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22026080/but6.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #87


Great pictures, I love the DoF you get on the macros. I would maybe play with cropping a bit. E.g. trying a square image format
 
  • #88


M Quack said:
Great pictures, I love the DoF you get on the macros. I would maybe play with cropping a bit. E.g. trying a square image format

Yes you're right, these are mere thumbnails of the whole frames for quick result. There is a lot of finetuning with post processing and cropping ahead.
 
  • #89


Nice! I'm beginning to think butterflies are more vain than cats. They seem to love to pose!
 
  • #90


Absolutely beautiful Andre!
 

Similar threads

Replies
6
Views
1K
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
1K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
2K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
3K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
Replies
14
Views
2K
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
2K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
  • · Replies 22 ·
Replies
22
Views
7K