Silvery Blue Butterfly at Mountain Seep

[Craig Markham]

Mount Ashland, Oregon, USA
08/22/10 1:31:41 PM
Canon EOS-1D Mark III
EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
1/400, f/11.0, ISO 800
Manual Exposure
Evaluative Metering
Macro TwinLite External E-TTL @ -2/3 comp
Bright sunlight, handheld
Image cropped to approx 50% of original area for composition.

These Silvery Blues were collecting mineral salts from moist soils at a mountainside seep. In the dazzling sunlight of the mountaintop, I exposed for the lighter blues in the wings and detail in the white wing fringes while using fill flash to reduce the starkness of the shadows.

Craig

[Allen Sparks]

Craig, nice catch of this little gem. I find getting any kind of open wing shot of small butterflies like this quite challenging. I like the exposure of the far wing and all that "hair" makes for an interesting plus. A full open wing shot would be nice (without the out of focus portion of the near wing) but this image still portrays this species well and tells a story. You may think about cloning out the brown twig behind the butterfly.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Agree with Allen, challenging kind of shot. Nice details on the far wing and beautiful blue color. Not sure about this but I think that a slight move to the right could give you more focus on the far wing tip and separate the oof near wing from the BF head.

[Ken Childs]

Craig, I know these small butterflies can be tough to shoot since they usually don't sit with their wings open all that often. Knowing that, I think you did quite well and there's some great detail in this shot. In a perfect world, you might have moved slightly to the right and maybe up just a bit. I agree that you should try to work on that twig in the BG.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Craig,
VG advice given above! I think you did well using the flash.....perhaps a hair more light in the face area......but besides the twig already mentioned.....nicely done overall!

[annmpacheco]

Hi Mark,
what a beautiful blue guy! I appreciate the details you have presented here and was amazed at the fringe around the edge wing. It looks wonderful to me!

[Craig Markham]

Mount Ashland, Oregon, USA
08/22/10 1:31:41 PM

These Silvery Blues were collecting mineral salts from moist soils at a mountainside seep.....



My friend through the Native Plant Society of Oregon, Tanya Harvey, who knows her butterflies a lot better than I, has since corrected my ID of this butterfly. Another entomologist friend, Bob Grossman, concurred with her ID: according to them, it's a Blue Copper butterfly.

Tanya, a consummate amateur botanist/photographer/artist and natural historian, has developed an outstanding website and is preparing to publish her book, Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades of Oregon. Check out her butterfly page at
http://westerncascades.com/photos/butterflies/?album=2&gallery=3&nggpage=2
I'm sure that the macro images she has collected will knock your socks off. Before this, I had no idea of the diversity of this group of butterflies.

Craig