Tattered and Torn

[Julie Kenward]

This Common Buckeye has definitely seen better days. How he's managed to continue flying when he's this beat up is beyond me. Lucky for me, he stayed fairly still and let me practice for a good five minutes before he took off again. Not my favorite butterfly image but I do like that he's so wrecked...makes me all the hungrier for autumn to get here!

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
f4 @ 1/1250, ISO 200
Pattern metering, handheld, mid-morning sunlight (starting to get harsh)
Cloned out a few small leaves/flowers and cloned the antenna tip of the right over to the left. ;)

[Allen Sparks]

First, let me say Julie, that I am glad to see you shooting a real live insect. The bug people are rubbing off on you. I really like the tattered look - it tells the story of nature and the progression butterflies go through. I suppose you chose f4 to keep the BG blurred but I think you could have gotten away with it a little narrower and pulled in just a tad more DOF to get the lower left completely sharp (and that antennae too). Did you try other apertures like f8 - f11? A very nice image that tells a story.

[Julie Kenward]

Allen, the field was so full of plants and flowers that I really didn't think I could get away with anything higher than f4. I did take some others throughout the day at higher apertures and didn't like any of them because the BG's were so prominent. I tend to keep the aperture low and contort my body as much as possible to get me on an even focal plane with the insects - and since I don't "contort" as well as I did in my YOUNGER days ;) I missed that little corner of his wing. (If I remember right, I was about to go sliding down the side of a rather steep ravine so I grabbed the image and moved to the other side of the plant!)

I'm going out again this morning so we'll see if I can get brave and try a higher aperture again. Thanks for the comment!

[Ken Childs]

I'm pretty much in agreement with Allen's assessment.

Jules, as long at the highs stay in the 60's, you should have lots of chances at Buckeyes. This has been a great year for the species and they should get more concentrated when they start migrating south.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jules,
Yep.....Allen got my thoughts very well. Keep in mind the distance to the BG plays a huge role on the DOF debate! I actually look for perches where the distance to the BG is the first thing I look for.....more than the subject as in this case.....the tattered look tells a great story!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jules. Nice image of a geriatric butterfly! You did well at f/4 to get as much DOF as you did. I don't find the DOF falloff to be particularly objectionable here. You might consider adding just a bit more room on the right and toning down the brightest of the whites in the OOF flowers. :)

[Connie Mier]

Hi Julie, would it look too unnatural if you got rid of the white around the head? Only say this because I think it would highlight the butterfly moreso, since its current state of wing disrepair is the main subject. A beautiful example of nature's way.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Julie.....the only thing that bothers me at all is the white near the head of the butterfly. Nice story!

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks everyone - that white at the top is bothering me, too. I probably will evict it. I might even "move" the butterfly to an entirely different flower. Gotta love digital processing!!!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot Jules I would have tried f5.6 and i would suggest to clone the left hand flower head, glad to see folks appreciate the beauty of less than pristine subjects.

[Art Kornienko]

Lovely detail and bg. The white of the flower both left and top do seem to distract a touch, like Steve mentions maybe just toning down a bit.