Silver Studded Blues

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro tripod ISO 200-0.3 1/400 sec f10.
A bit grraphic perhaps but well it is nature, this is what they do!
All C & C welcome.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome behaviour. Love the overall BG (except for the OOF leaf behind the butterflies). I do wish the upper winf of the right subject was all within DOF...not much needed there, perhaps just moving a bit to the right would have aligned you perfectly square to both of them.

Thanks for sharing this way cool opportunity you had!!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Johnathan,
I think the story is great and I myself look for these type of opportunities! Daniel brought up some excellent points about the angle and I also feel lightneing up the RH butterfly will go a long way in taking this up a notch. Another fine effort from you

[Jonathan Ashton]

I agree about the OOF area, trouble is there was now't I could do without disturbing vegetation and other butterflies, I took about 300 shots in differing areas/positions that day and I am not 100% happy with any.... but I remain defiant!! I 'll be back!:w3

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. A very nice capture of this behavior (and where would we be if they didn't do this? :S3:). Daniel and Roman have expressed my thoughts well so I won't repeat. I can appreciate the difficulty of getting these aligned exactly when using a tripod in vegetation. You might try some selective sharpening on the wings of the right butterfly and maybe a little dodging around its face. I think these tweaks will take the image up a notch or two.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jonathan, great advice already given, covering all my critique points. I see you are only at f/10 and still at 1/400, so maybe stopping down would have been an option to get more DOF on that wing. The tripod, mating butterflies and BG seem to allow a slower SS.
It's good to see you are back with your butterflies again! I count butterflies weekly on a transect for a national monitoring scheme, but this year I haven't seen any blues yet, so it's nice to see they're still present around your place!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jerry - it was a breezy day so I couldn't really afford to go much slower SS.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Jerry - it was a breezy day so I couldn't really afford to go much slower SS.

But you were only at ISO 200, so upping that would have still given you enough to compensate. Always something to think about, eh!:S3:

[Jonathan Ashton]

But you were only at ISO 200, so upping that would have still given you enough to compensate. Always something to think about, eh!:S3:
You area absolutely right Daniel I agree, I am kicking myself because during the day I did in fact go to 400 but not for this particular scenario - what a plonker!