Coming in for a landing

[Beth Goffe]

My first post here in this forum. I went on a group butterfly walk in the NJ Meadowlands this past weekend and managed to get a few decent images for my efforts. I didn't know butterflies could be even more difficult than birds! This female White Form Sulphur seems to have been joined by completely different species during her meal.

40D, 1/1250s f/5.6, 275mm, ISO 200

[Christopher Miller]

Beautiful image, Beth, and welcome to the macro forum! Great work getting two insects in this! Love the comp and BG colors. Only thing that would make it better IMO would be if the bee was sharper.

[Fabs Forns]

Beautiful setting and as mentioned, the sharper bee would have put it over the top. As is, I'd consider cloning out the bee, since the rest is so wonderful.

Good to see you our garden :)

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot. I like the composition with the placement of the two flowers. Great light and colors.
Wish the bee were completely sharp.

Markus

[Julie Kenward]

Butterflies are nothing compared to getting that moving bee to slow down! 1/1250th and you still need more speed...isn't it amazing? Beautiful image but I agree with Fabs - I'd remove the bee since he isn't as in focus as the butterfly. Beautiful bokeh in this image!

[Beth Goffe]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Yeah, it seems I never have enough shutter speed for what I need! I'm glad at least the sulphur and background works!

[Fabs Forns]

I don't think it was a matter of shutter speed, but of depth of field. At f/5.6, there's no way they are both going to be on focus because they are on different focal planes.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Beth, a big welcome to the Macro gallery. Very cool first post, and agree with fabs you really needed more depth of field, but tough to get both subject sharp without bringing in more details in the BG which would start to get cluttery. I think the bee is pretty cool even though it's not totally sharp, and also think it would work well if you cloned out the bee. Either way works for me. Good looking BG.

[BillTyler]

Beth,

I like this with either the bee or the butterfly, but not both. As it is, it looks like a photograph with two competing subjects.

Bill

[Beth Goffe]

Ok, here's the image without the bee. Now that the butterfly is situated on the left side of the frame, would a vertical crop work better?

[Julie Kenward]

I still like the horizontal orientation for this one even though the butterfly isn't really in the ROT's position. I do think the comp would be stronger without the third partial flower, however.

Beautiful BG in this image, Beth...perfectly done on your choice of DOF.

[Beth Goffe]

Thanks, Julie. I was fortunate to have set f5.6 when I was taking these - I'm really happy with the background, too (although it didn't help with the bee). I can probably do some Quick Masking to get rid of that third flower. When I've got the time and energy, I'll give it a shot!