Passionflower Butterfly

[Steve Maxson]

I photographed this Passionflower Butterfly (Heliconius hecale zukika) at the Green Hills Butterfly Farm in Belize. We had permission to use tripods and were fortunate to have overcast conditions with no wind. 1D 4, 100 mm macro, 1/40, f/3.5, ISO 400, live view manual focus on the eyes, tripod, mirror lock, cable release, natural light. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Mitch Haimov]

Well, this one is just about perfect, Steve. Love the detail in your subject and the eye and proboscis are killer. Handling of darks and saturation are spot on, as is the comp. Lovely BG and pleasing perch. I suppose the antennae could be sharper, but quite a minor quibble--you did extremely well on the DOF for f/3.5.

[Linda Dulak]

This is beautiful, Steve. Looking at the leaf you can see just how narrow the DOF is and that's why the only thing out of that plane are the antenna. It's very good to get the entire butterfly in that plane with such a narrow DOF and such a beautiful eye and proboscis. I'm wondering if you could have upped the ISO and the f stop to gain some DOF? Was this in the deep shade?

Linda

[Sandy Witvoet]

Striking! Love the bg and great focus on the butterfly... the slight OOF antennae doesn't bother me.

[Nancy Bell]

Stunning! Exquisite details & colors on the butterfly. They must train those butterflies at the Butterfly Farm to pose :w3! Nice simple leaf perch with a lovely curve & I like those hairy details. A perfect blurred bkgd.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice shot Steve, I like the composition, the focus and DOF are optimal, detail in the blacks and highlights is good.

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Steve.

I think this is excellent, because of its beauty and simplicity. The butterfly is elegant and beautiful, and the plain substrate and background do nothing to detract from it. Very enjoyable.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Steve, this is great Steve...the sharpness is wonderful and the patience to use a tripod for butterflies really paid off. Awesome work!!!

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Linda: It was an overcast, windless day and I was experimenting with shallow DOF to blur the background. Under these conditions - and using a tripod, I could have adjusted ISO and f/stop to get more DOF.

Nancy: Butterfly farms do provide a lot of subjects, although it has been my experience that many of the butterflies are not in good condition in terms of wear and tear on their wings. So it is still a challenge to find a prime specimen that will give you a nice pose against an uncluttered background. :S3: