Assignment: Macro - Moth

[Rich Reich]

Nikon D200, 105mm f2.8 VR lens
1/200 sec at f 8, ISO 100, tripod,
Shot August 6, 2006 in a cone flower in Westwood MA at 2:24pm

Rich Reich

[Alfred Forns]

Looks good Rich I like the crop and sweet bg Might have tried getting more parallel to the moth for dof coverage and also using some fill flash. With insects is difficult getting on sun angle and we rely on some artificial light !!

If you have someone shooting with you take a reflector and take turns holding it Will get so sweet results !!!!

[Gail Spitler]

Hi Rich. Just an aside (if it matters): I am pretty sure that your insect is actually a butterfly, it is in the butterfly family known as Skippers. I don't know my Mass. butterflies well enough to nail the species. Lots of good detail on the butterfly and the flower.
Cheers
Gail

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Rich, that's great advice from Al. The colors in this image are super, and given the intense side/backlighting you've captured a lot of detail in the shadows. There may be an exception or two, but generally speaking, butterflies have knobs on their antennae and moths do not. As Gail said, it is a skipper, but I don't know which one it is either.
Thanks for sharing your image. Looking forward to your next one...

[Rich Reich]

Gail and Ron,

Thanks for identifying my "moth" as a skipper butterfly. To my amazement the Wikipedia says there are 3,500 species of skipper worldwide. I then went to the Mass Audubon Society site which had a large selection also. A guess could be the "Peck's skipper" but I'm not sure ( http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc...olites-peckius or http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=2088).

Thanks again.

Rich

[Lance Peters]

Hi Rich - great advice from AL - a increase in aperture to f16 or so would also have helped with the DOF.
A lot of macro is going to be shot at F16 and up.
Love the BG and composition is good.

Keep em coming :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Rich,
I like the composition and capture...the color rendition is good...I agree with Mr. Forns on the techs. Would recommend on using fill flash on your next one...looking forward to it...:cool:

[Bob Miller]

Hi Rich...You have a really nice bg in this image. i would agree that a f11/ 16 aperture would have given you more depth of field. You might consider raising the ISO to achieve this