Face-to-face with a Butterfly

[Daniel Cadieux]

I was on vacation this past week with my two boys...so I took the opportunity to visit some local nature trails with them (something they love to do). This neat little butterfly gave us good looks, and was very cooperative for photography. Borrowed lens.

Canon 7D + 100mm f/2.8 macro lens (:S3:), aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/100s., f/4.5, ISO 800, +0.7 EC, natural light, handheld, about 80% FF.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Daniel,
I remember when my boys were younger I used to do the same thing! Now that they are teenagers.....they have other interests:2eyes2:! I love the head on angle.....as you know I generally want more DOF but I do think in this case.....it works very well! Focus is on the eye....where it should IMO. I am debating taking the whites down a touch .....just a few points.....but all in all the light is fantastic and you captured both an unusual perspective and I find....the shallow DOF actually adds to the overall appeal. Very nicely done!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Daniel, great work on this butterfly. I too like the up front angle, but may have taken a slightly lower angle to show more of the face. The soft light and great BG make this one stand out! You should borrow that macro lens more often :S3:!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Daniel. Sounds like you had fun with your boys - and with the "real" macro lens. :S3: I like the head-on view and the natural light. You have good sharpness around the head and leading edges of the wings - where it most needs to be sharp. Like Roman, I typically prefer more, rather than less, DOF, but you didn't have much leeway with ss or ISO given that you were hand holding. In this case the shallow DOF does work quite well (but if all of the antennas were sharp, this would be over the top! :S3: ). I hope you got some more shots with that lens and that we get to see them soon. Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like it I think it works, I too would have loved it had the antennae been in focus. Sometimes you get lucky ... but not often!

[christopher galeski]

nice one,I think the DOF works in this shot,for me,and I like the greens,as been said,it would have been good if the antennae had been sharp as well,nice image.thanks.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Interesting image and I like it. Good focus point and very nice BG. I would like the tip of the wing to be oof.

[Ken Childs]

Hey Daniel, as soon as I opened this post I had to laugh....I love this angle! The shallow DOF works great here.