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.