Cairns Birdwing Butterfly larvae

[Paul Gobert]

Cairns Birdwing Butterfly larvae (Ornithoptera euphorion) about to pupate.
Caterpillar has set its harness.

159332

Equipment
Pentax K30
Sigma 28-80 macro
f32, 1/180 sec, ISO 200
Ringflash
Manual Focus
Handheld

Processing
LR
Not cropped
Adjustments to: exposure, whites, blacks, clarity and vibrance.
Was tempted to reduce the reflected highlights in eye and forelegs but thought they might then blend in a bit too much.

Comments welcomed and thanks for viewing.

Paul.

[Bob Allen]

Great subject, a stage of a birdwing that most of us never get to see. I dig that it's face and ventral surfaces are a bit toward us. A tad soft in the cat's posterior, an artifact of angle (when composing, try to align sensor plane parallel to plane of subject), but sharpness of anterior makes up for it. I'd perhaps proportionately crop in just a bit from upper right corner, which would put cat more toward right side of frame. A sensor dust spot on upper leaf, easily masked out. Good sharpness overall, am impressed by clarity of the spiracles. Vein pattern of lower leaf suggests Aristolochia – its food plant perhaps?

[Diane Miller]

Wow! Simply gorgeous tonalities on this creature, with the lighting and processing contributing to beautiful detail.

[Paul Gobert]

Thanks Bob,
The vine I photographed this caterpillar and others on, rises in a single layer up the side of a nearby high-set house. The caterpillars preferred the side of the vine facing under the house.
From beneath the house I was able to photograph small and advanced caterpillars, this one getting ready to pupate, some old broken chrysalises and an old seed pod from the vine. Great opportunities.
Yes you are right the vine is one of our native rainforest Pipe Vines, Aristolochia tagala (http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/plants/aris/aristolochia-tagala.html) , the preferred food plant of this caterpillar.
There have been problems in the past with people planting the introduced Aristolochia elegans which has a much higher level of toxins in its leaves which kills the caterpillars.
Some years ago the local council commenced a project to repopulate the area with Cairns Birdwing Butterflies.
Vines were planted on wire mesh hoops along suburban creek banks.
Details at http://www.trc.qld.gov.au/environmental-servicesinformation/cairns-birdwing-butterfly-foodplant-establishment-project-ergon-energy-envirofund/ .
Ah yes those dust spots, have been shy about cleaning the sensor but I had best get onto it.
As you say an adjustment of angle would have helped with posterior sharpness. I was photographing from under the house looking into the light. Not an ideal situation for my old eyes.

Thanks Diane,
An interesting processing exercise this one. Because the overall tone of the subject and background are dark the histogram was not typical.
The ringflash was being used in manual mode and its power combined with the focusing distance of the lens used enables a small aperture to be used.
Would suspect that TTL flash would need compensation to expose correctly in this situation
Whilst the caterpillar is overshadowed by the beauty of its adult phase it has some interesting tones and textures.
I have obtained some seeds and hope to grow some vines over a mesh hoop in the backyard. Aim is to eventually get a photo of butterfly emerging from chrysalis

Paul..

[Glennie Passier]

Paul, This is great! I love the little harness attached to the stem. That little dust spot could be easily cloned out Paul.

I have planted the Aristolochia here for the Richmond Bird Wings. No takers yet after seven years.

Well done Paul. TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the quality of the image the texture of the caterpillar is almost tactile. The main issue I have is that the caterpillar is too large in the frame and taken from a less than ideal angle resulting in insufficient DOF, the image is very nearly there and lovely quality.

[Paul Gobert]

Thanks Glennie,
Hope the birdwings come to your vines soon.
Quite a few years ago I hung a piece of ragged rope from the eaves of my garage hoping that the resident Sunbirds would build a nest there.
Of course what looked like a perfect site to me stayed barren for many years.
When the birds finally did build a nest there the introduced Indian Hill Mynahs destroyed it. **** weeds of the sky.

Thanks Jonathan.
I seem to be preoccupied with filling the frame with my subjects so will try to back off a bit.
The lens I am using will only go into macro mode at 80mm.
Backing off will mean that the illumination level from the ring flash will be reduced.
Can add extra lighting but risk introducing shadows.
Guess its the old question. Soft detailed light or harsher artistic light?
Will try to get back to the site, want to record the formation of the chrysalis.
Tripod and torch to help with focusing and alignment might be in order.
This was one of those images where adjustment to clarity really made a big difference.

Paul.