West Coast Lady

[Julie Kenward]

Denise's image of the Julian Heliconian butterfly got me looking over some of my images from the Butterfly Festival this past summer. I found this one of a West Coast Lady butterfly perched on the leaf of a tropical tree inside the glass atrium.

Canon 40D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
f5.6 @ 1/80th, ISO 320
Manual mode, center-weighted metering, auto WB
Handheld, natural light
Processed in ACR & CS4; small crop, color correction, levels adjustment

[Ed Vatza]

Ahh butterflies. Can Spring be far behind? I hope not! :)

Like the butterfly. Like the leaf. Not real keen on the background. Don't know what it is but it looks almost like a concrete wall to me. I think that if it could be taken more oof, it would help.

[Aristotle Georgiou]

I agree with Ed on the BG, but it does look like you had no other option shooting at F5.6. Sometimes I find in these situations, shooting wide open to show some habitat, can be more effective.

[Julie Kenward]

Guys, it's the bark of a tropical tree and that is exactly what it looked like - all splotchy. I'll look at blurring it a bit more and see if that helps. Thanks for the feedback!

[denise ippolito]

Jules, Nice butterfly, Good details thruout-BG doesn't bother me it looks like a natural habitat!

[Ed Vatza]

Guys, it's the bark of a tropical tree and that is exactly what it looked like - all splotchy.

Oops! :o I was seeing rusty brown blotches on white not white on brown (tree trunk). I'd still be interested in seeing a more diffuse background here.

[Julie Kenward]

Well, gang, I tried to blur the BG and it looks more like concrete than ever before! I think I'll look at maybe swapping out the BG but, for now, this one's on hold...