Butterflies Galore

Butterflies have decreased in number a bit around where we live, but I know a place to go to see many of different varieties.  That is at the Chicago Botanic Gardens seasonal Butterflies and Blooms Exhibit.  I went there a couple of times this summer and was happy with the ability to walk into an enclosed "jungle" of flowering shrubs and photograph to my hearts content.





One day was sunny which made for some contrasty and distracting leaf backgrounds.  I had my nice full frame camera with me on this day, but I had to be very careful and look for a nice even lit background behind my subjects.

The other day was overcast which made for nice even lighting but also a little dull and need of a little more light.   I used my cropped sensor camera as it has a small built in flash. So I used the flash set at -2/3 power to give a little fill light and some vibrance to the shots.

The gardens allow you to photograph as much as you want without a tripod and as long as you don't touch the butterflies.  Therefore the flash along with the image stabilizing helped me to get a little sharper picture hand holding my camera. This is especially important because a lot of the butterflies are small and you have to get fairly close to get a full frame shot and the depth of field you can get may not be as much as you would like.  I also tried to keep the butterfly wings as close to a straight line with the camera for this same reason.  Since you are close to the butterflies and the butterflies are close to all the vegetation behind them, it can be a struggle to decide on an f-stop that will be enough to have a sharp butterfly and yet have the background be pleasingly out of focus and not distracting.

I used my 100 mm macro lens and slowly approached the beauties to get some nice close up shots.   A slow approach is important because even though the butterflies may sit for a while in a certain area, you don't want them to flit off on you by too fast of an approach.

 Happy butterfly hunting!

Watch the Weather

I have been busy managing a blog for our upcoming CAPS-Chicago Area Photographic School this coming November 21 and 22.  Chicago Camera Clubs - Home and so I haven't posted anything here.

Then I went out to photograph recently and I wanted everyone to know about the great early morning weather we have been having.  The ordinary person would say "No Way," because it has been foggy and the humidity has been up and the temperatures have dropped at night.  However, for a photographer this is great because it means there will be dew all over the place and so it was at Chiwaukee Prairie.

Here is what I found:

All the shots were taken with my 100 mm macro lens.  With the third picture I added a close-up filter onto the front of the lens so I could get closer and see more detail.


Most people would say it was a "calm" morning, but it wasn't dead still and these things are fragile, so there was slight movement occasionally.  I therefore used ISO 400 so my shutter speed wouldn't be too slow.  I had it at 1/5 to 1/25 second as it was.  My f stops were from f 6.3 to f 10.  Not super great for a macro shot, but like I said, I didn't want too long of a shutter speed.  Those I tried at a slower speed were blurry.  Of course my camera was mounted on a tripod and I used a remote shutter release.  I also used fill flash to try to stop the action of the very slight breeze and to add a little vibrance to the subjects since it was an overcast, foggy morning.




I just love "live view" for focusing.  I can now get things in better focus than with the old film cameras.  I did use the old technique of making sure I was as straight as possible to my subject (and not at an angle) so that  I could get as much in focus as possible with these macro shots.  In the old days we called this "in the same plane as the back of the camera."

On the whole it was a fun morning.

Happy Mother's Day

It is Mother's Day.  It is May.  The day should be beautiful....but it is raining outside.  This must be a mistake. It shouldn't be like this....but really if you take time to look, it is beautiful outside.  The spring flowers are blooming and along my driveway are these lovely tulips covered with raindrops.  How beautiful is that.  Happy Mother's Day!

To The Zoo

Sometimes friends spur you on to go out and photograph.  This happened last weekend.  I normally would not go to the zoo on a cold March day with snow on the ground, but Lake County Camera Club was having an outing to the Milwaukee County Zoo.  So I went.  I am glad I did.  It gave me a chance to practice using my new 70-200mm lens inside and I used my 100-400mm zoom lens outside.  I ditched the tripod and hand held which forced me to use higher shutter speeds to stop any motion blur and to concentrate on getting the eyes in focus with a lower f stop.  I love the big cats and here are two of my favorites a 7 month old Snow Leopard cub outside and a Jaguar taken inside.

Seeing From a Different Perspective

We have sure had some storms this past winter.  A lot of wind pounding waves onto the shore.  I had wanted to get a picture of the frozen ice near the Kenosha harbor light.  I went down the street near the light and I didn't see anything of what I was hoping for.  A week later, a friend posted a picture on her Facebook page from the Kenosha News.  There was the picture I was looking for!  Hmmm!  I knew where they got the shot.  And I knew I had to go soon as time was short.  The forcast was calling for temperatures in the 40s to 50s next week and then it wouldn't be safe to walk out on the ice.  So I went down to Simmons Island early the next morning and walked out onto the still frozen landscape.  I walked up and down the landscape carefully peering out along the shore until I found the spot to get both the harbor light and the frozen cliffs of ice in the picture.  Below is one of my favorite shots of the morning.  Sometimes it is just in looking in a different place from a different perspective to find that shot you are looking for.

A Fun Opportunity and a Great Cause

      It is great to be able to shoot large birds of prey...any kind of owl, hawk or falcon.  There are a number of places that take in injured birds and animals and release them into the wild when they are back to health.  There are some that, due to their injuries, can no longer survive in the wild on their own.  Nature centers will take care of these creatures for the rest of their live span.  They will feed them and care for them and use them to educate children about wildlife.  One of the nature centers near me is Stillman Nature Center.  They have a number of raptors in their care.  It takes money to run the center and so one way they have devised to help raise funds is to have a nature photography photo day.  They will set up the birds in natural settings as trees and let nature photographers, like myself, come in and photograph them for a short time for a fee.  The birds all have tethers on their legs to protect them and us.  Some of them are hidden by tree branches and snow.  On two of the birds I did Photoshop the tethers out...just because.  It was a fun time to be able to see these birds up close, to learn about them from the nature center volunteers, to get some nice pictures and a worthy cause.