Butterflies

Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

On 7/4/2010 9:15 AM, YDOD wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and
then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on
it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or
they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better
luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice
on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything.


A longer focal length macro lens helps. A 100 or 180mm lens means you
don't need to get as close. Also finding out what species of plant each
kind of butterfly likes to sip from also helps as they stay at them
longer. Getting up early in the day when it's still cool and the
butterflies are moving slower also helps. A dark secret is that many of
the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the
butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the
studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a
cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time
to make the shot.


John Passaneau

John Passaneau wrote:
On 7/4/2010 9:15 AM, YDOD wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and
then I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on
it. There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or
they take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better
luck on hot sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice
on time of day, weather, vegetation, anything.


A longer focal length macro lens helps. A 100 or 180mm lens means you
don't need to get as close. Also finding out what species of plant each
kind of butterfly likes to sip from also helps as they stay at them
longer.

Yes, if this is back yard shooting, plant some good nectar plants like
verbena and in general study up on gardening for butterflies & bees -
lots of things like making a mud puddle for them, not using pesticides,
leave some areas wild & weedy, don't clean up too much, etc.


Getting up early in the day when it's still cool and the
butterflies are moving slower also helps. A dark secret is that many of
the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the
butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the
studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a
cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time
to make the shot.


John Passaneau

On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 07:15:04 -0600, "YDOD" wrote:

Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

For optics use a tele-macro configuration. Close-up filters on long zoom
lenses. This gives you enough working room between lens and subject for the
more skittish species. Practice your handheld skills, you'll need them at
the long focal-lengths in use.

Wear camo-patterned clothing and hat. You may not have a gun but you are
hunting nonetheless. You have to get nearer to your photography subjects
and use greater stealth tactics than any hunter would ever have to.
(Wildlife photography is much more difficult than hunting.)

Avoid bug-sprays or strong scents. Unscented DEET products can be used
sparingly if needed. You can buy 99% DEET from the camping and sporting
goods departments. A drop or two spread in the hands and lightly brushed on
clothing, backs of hands, and face should suffice. Thoroughly clean it off
the palms of your hands or you will end up melting and destroying most
plastics and painted surfaces that you touch.

Try to approach an insect from a direction where something just as dark
colored as you are (relative to the sky), and of similar angular dimensions
as you are, can be kept to your back. So you blend in with the forms and
outlines that the insect is seeing and detecting. Blend in with the
silhouettes behind you.

In the late late afternoon, just before sunset, they will often find spots
where sunlight is hitting a surface and will bask in that, always returning
to the same spot many times. Watch for their basking spots and then remain
there waiting. Be patient. You can be within a foot of their basking spot
and as long as you remain motionless they'll return to it. An added benefit
is the warm late sun enhances their warmer colors.

If a settled butterfly refuses to open up its wings while you have it
framed and focused you can momentarily, but slowly, cast a partial shadow
on it to get it to open its wings and ready itself for flight. Sometimes
just the approaching shadow is enough. Use this method with caution or they
may just fly off altogether.

If you become more dedicated to insect photography then also get some
inexpensive knee and elbow protectors from a sporting-goods department (for
bikers and skateboarders). These become invaluable when hunting insect
species close to the ground. You can stalk a skittish insect as slowly and
cautiously as you want in any kind of terrain. You won't reflexively flinch
from putting a knee or elbow into a rock or twig, scaring the subject away.
For low-flying butterflies like skippers and little blues and azures this
might come in handy. This was the only way that I could obtain images of
some rare carnivorous beetles one time. They only hunted in open sunny
areas of gravel and would fly off at the slightest nearby motion. Due to
their small size (5/8") I couldn't use tele-macro optics, I had to use a
full macro lens only 3 inches from them. The knee and elbow pads finally
did the trick for stalking them. I've since had to buy far fewer shirts and
pants too. Knees and elbows aren't being torn up so much nor stained with
mud and muck.

On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:56:43 -0400, John Passaneau wrote:

A dark secret is that many of
the best butterfly photos were made in the studio. They catch the
butterfly and take an appropriate piece of plant material into the
studio and set it up. They slow down the butterfly by putting it into a
cooler for a while so that it moves very slow giving them lots of time
to make the shot.

An undark secret is that I can spot those contrived photos using artificial
lighting every time. I don't consider them "the best", I consider them the
very worst images I've ever seen. There are better ways to photograph them
in their natural environment with natural lighting now. Learn them.

On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:56:46 -0700, John Navas
wrote:

On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:48:05 -0500, in
, Ken Walls
wrote:

On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 07:15:04 -0600, "YDOD" wrote:

Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

For optics use a tele-macro configuration. Close-up filters on long zoom
lenses. This gives you enough working room between lens and subject for the
more skittish species. Practice your handheld skills, you'll need them at
the long focal-lengths in use.

[HUGE SNIP]

Superzoom (e.g., Panasonic DMC-FZ35) with tele macro and optical image
stabilization works quite well for this, and is a lot less hassle.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2z53igz.jpg


I would have mentioned super-zoom P&S for the extended DOF that is required
for these subjects (my preferred gear for this) but the same principles can
apply to all cameras, just not as well. IS becomes highly valuable when
shooting handheld at the long focal-lengths used for tele-macro work. A
tripod is all but useless and a huge drawback when trying to photograph
butterflies in the field. Even a monopod can become a major hassle under
those shooting conditions. You have to get in stealthily with as little
extra gear as possible. Gear that would create extraneous motion,
light-reflections, and sound disturbances in the brush and grasses. Get the
shots and get ready to move fast if they dart off into another far area..

I typically use a +1, +2, or even +4 (at times) diopter closeup filter
stacked with a 1.7x telextender on a super-zoom P&S camera. This affords a
very comfortable working distance for all manner of larger macro subjects.
A wide array of composition possibilities (a superior zoom in/out range, as
needed). As well as providing for enough DOF for subjects as broad and deep
as butterflies, while still getting a nice bokeh in the foreground and
background, even in fairly dense-growth conditions. Though at times some
larger butterflies still get one or two wingtips blurred from a too shallow
DOF. It can sometimes work in your favor, composition and pose dependent.
In bright sunlit conditions then stopping down can help. But under overcast
and cloudy skies or in densely wooded areas and deeply shaded brush then
you'll be glad you can shoot with that much DOF at f2.0, f/2.4, or f/3.5,
at handheld shutter-speeds capable of freezing those moving wings.

YDOD wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

Butterfly net and superglue?

--
Ray Fischer

On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 22:00:33 -0700 (PDT), otter
wrote:

On Jul 4, 8:15*am, "YDOD" wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/

My first attempt at butterflies.

Would have been a nice shot and composition .... but

Focus being off, and too slow of shutter speed adding to the blur from the
moving wings, would have to sadly put this into the scrap-pile.

I respectfully disagree with Ken. I think that perfection is something to
aim for and not a minimum requirement. This is a very good photograph which
I would expect that the photographer would find most encouraging of his
efforts.

"Ken Walls" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Jul 2010 22:00:33 -0700 (PDT), otter
wrote:

On Jul 4, 8:15 am, "YDOD" wrote:
Does anyone have any tips for photographing butterflies that they would
share? At present, I wait until I see one, I wait for it to settle and
then
I try to sneak up on it, being careful not to let my shadow fall on it.
There are many problems with this method but the main ones are that
sometimes they do not settle, or they settle somewhere inaccessible or
they
take flight again while I am sneaking up. I seem to have better luck on
hot
sunny days when there is no wind but I would welcome advice on time of
day,
weather, vegetation, anything.

Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/

My first attempt at butterflies.

Would have been a nice shot and composition .... but

Focus being off, and too slow of shutter speed adding to the blur from the
moving wings, would have to sadly put this into the scrap-pile.

otter wrote in
:



Speaking of butterflies, here is one I took over the weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkes...09662/sizes/l/

My first attempt at butterflies.


Those things are so tricky to get focused.

--
SneakyP
To email me, you know what to do.