Field Crescent Butterflies

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 VR micro lens, hand held
ISO 400, f/9.0, 1/400 sec, -0.67 comp
Unsharpened image

Good things can come in small packages, as these field crescent butterflies (with wingspans of barely an inch) arrayed on a butterfly milkweed flower show. Not shown but lurking below the flower were two monarch butterfly caterpillars, which by the next morning had devoured most of the flower and many of the leaves.

Comments are always welcome.

Norm Dulak

[Kyle Marie Barcelos]

Great shoot, they sure love that flower, maybe it's just me but I would like all four butterfly's on top of the flower to be more in focus, I know you said hand held, so that might be why, not sure. I'm no expert :) Love the color. Great job.

[denise ippolito]

Norm. The patterns created by their shapes and markings is nice. Alot going on w/ the BG. Still an interesting image-I might crop some off the top if it were mine.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Norm, very cool circular comp with the b-flies. Agree with Denise about cropping the top and maybe even a tiny bit more on the others side also which would help eliminate a little of the busy BG.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks for all of your comments!

Cropping a bit off the top probably would be a good idea.

As for focus, it would have been better if all four of the central butterflies had been in the same plane, but the top one was significantly below the others. More importantly, the conditions were not good for a really sharp image.

I normally use an electronic cable release with the camera on a tripod for macro photography, and the lens should ideally have been stopped down to at least f/22 for butterflies of this size. But the butterflies constantly opened and closed their wings and changed position on the flower. Also, there was a stiff breeze that put the flower in almost continual motion. That's why I hand held the camera, turned on the VR, stopped down to only f/9 to obtain a reasonable shutter speed, and hoped for the best.

But I thought that the colors of the flower and the butterflies with their intricate wing patterns, and the pattern they presented on the flower, were nevertheless worth sharing with you.

Again, thanks for looking and offering your helpful comments.

Norm Dulak

[Julie Kenward]

Norm, did you try doing any selective sharpening on the individual butterflies in pp? I bet that would get you very close to the result you are looking for.

[Norm Dulak]

Jules:

That's a good idea. I'll give it a try.

Norm Dulak