Another butterfly

[Ben Harris]

From the same shoot as the last one. Going through my RAWs, I decided I liked this one better than the original shot. Again, this is a female Eastern tiger swallowtail (yellow form).



D60 | 70-300VR
300mm | f/8 | 1/200 | ISO 400 | Flash Fired

I really should have stopped down a little more to get the wing closest to me in focus more. Unfortunately I end up realizing these things long after the subject is gone. I cloned out a flower in the bottom almost touching the tail because it was just ugly. Should I push the rest of the flowers into the background by blurring them more?

Wholly unrelated to this photo (and probably in the wrong forum), looking at the posters here on this forum, I find myself afflicted by gear envy, mostly because I'm realizing that there's only just so much one can do with cheap consumer gear. I guess my question is how many "enthusiastic amateurs" can ever hope to recoup costs on something like a 600 f/4? Any lens better than, for example, my 70-300 5.6 is quite pricey. A 600 f/4 (to stick with a familiar lens) is a hair less than half what I payed for my fairly nice car. Does it boil down to "Get a better job and eat lots of Ramen?"

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ben - Great images can and are made with any camera - Thom Hogan has a interesting article entitled "blame the gear" - google it and I am sure you will find.
That said longer lens are pretty common for what we do - so you seek out the options - Second hand - Manual Focus - previous versions without VR - See Thom's article on VY also - a good read.

Consider third party alternatives - Sigma make a couple of excellent lens - 500 F4.5 and I use the sigmonster - Are they as good as the nikons - Not Quite - but then they are much less expensive and in the sigmonster case - the 300-800 zoom is not some thing nikon make. They tend not to hold their resale value as well as nikon - First resale of a sigma is about 50% of original price typically.

Now to the butterfly - like the setting and does look sharp. Flash use looks good - OOF foreground wing is a little distracting - but dont know that you would have got it in focus no matter what.

Good show :)

[Sandra K. Mathews-Benham]

[QUOTE=Lance Peters;539643]Second hand - Manual Focus - previous versions without VR - See Thom's article on VY also - a good read.

Thanks for the tip here!

And thanks for posting a fascinating image. I agree that the OOF foreground wing is distracting, but wow, like LP said, I don't know what you could do to make it happen better. Lovely hairy little guy!

[Ben Harris]

Hi Ben - Great images can and are made with any camera - Thom Hogan has a interesting article entitled "blame the gear" - google it and I am sure you will find.
That said longer lens are pretty common for what we do - so you seek out the options - Second hand - Manual Focus - previous versions without VR - See Thom's article on VY also - a good read.

Consider third party alternatives - Sigma make a couple of excellent lens - 500 F4.5 and I use the sigmonster - Are they as good as the nikons - Not Quite - but then they are much less expensive and in the sigmonster case - the 300-800 zoom is not some thing nikon make. They tend not to hold their resale value as well as nikon - First resale of a sigma is about 50% of original price typically.

Now to the butterfly - like the setting and does look sharp. Flash use looks good - OOF foreground wing is a little distracting - but dont know that you would have got it in focus no matter what.

Good show :)

Thanks for the reply. I was sure somebody would (rightly) mention 'Blame the Equipment.' I read it when I was first getting into photography. I really didn't come off as whining about gear. Everybody's got gear they'd love to have. I'm looking at the question from a mechanical and financial viewpoint. That is to say, I know what tools I need, and is it possible to make the investment pay off. Obviously it is, or we wouldn't have professional photographers.

I guess I feel like an artist missing a couple essential brushes from his bag.

I have been looking at older used lenses on ebay. At this point, I'm not sure that I can live without a meter, which limits my selection to AF and newer lenses. I'll just keep saving my pennies and get there eventually. And, heck, if Stefano Unterthiner can shoot wild life with a 20mm, so can I.

Thanks for the kind words about the photo, as well. I think f/16 would have gotten the wing, but I also am tempted to say that some of it's motion blur, as she was hanging precariously off that flower.

[Lance Peters]

Thanks for the reply. I was sure somebody would (rightly) mention 'Blame the Equipment.' I read it when I was first getting into photography. I really didn't come off as whining about gear. Everybody's got gear they'd love to have. I'm looking at the question from a mechanical and financial viewpoint. That is to say, I know what tools I need, and is it possible to make the investment pay off. Obviously it is, or we wouldn't have professional photographers.

I guess I feel like an artist missing a couple essential brushes from his bag.

I have been looking at older used lenses on ebay. At this point, I'm not sure that I can live without a meter, which limits my selection to AF and newer lenses. I'll just keep saving my pennies and get there eventually. And, heck, if Stefano Unterthiner can shoot wild life with a 20mm, so can I.

Thanks for the kind words about the photo, as well. I think f/16 would have gotten the wing, but I also am tempted to say that some of it's motion blur, as she was hanging precariously off that flower.

Hi Ben - the other option is to get closer to your subject - just have to find places that this is possible. Here in OZ - that is places like public gardens were the birds are quite tame - Im sure you would have some spots like that also. That other option of course is a tele-converter - once again may be limited with your lens choice though.

My recommendation would be to keep a eye out for the Sigma 500mm F4.5 second hand - it really is a very very good lens and second hand can be picked up relatively cheaply but hard to find.

Here is another LITTLE KNOWN tip - If you have a very very very good friend that owns or works in a camera store.......

Many Many Suppliers have a STAFF buy price which can be anywhere from 10-50% under WHOLESALE - only Staff can purchase and cannot resell within a specified timeframe - Choose your friends wisely!! :)

[Ben Harris]

Here is another LITTLE KNOWN tip - If you have a very very very good friend that owns or works in a camera store.......

Many Many Suppliers have a STAFF buy price which can be anywhere from 10-50% under WHOLESALE - only Staff can purchase and cannot resell within a specified timeframe - Choose your friends wisely!! :)

Well, the closest camera store has this cute girl that works there... I suppose I could *ahem* kill two birds with one stone... ;)

I'll keep my eye out for the Sigma 500 4.5. Seems like a great lens that can be had reasonably.

The idea of public gardens is a good one. Looking around the internet briefly, there are a couple within an hour's drive or so.