Great way to start the day

zero-zero

As I was heading out to work this morning, I noticed that a magnificient podalirius male had just emerged from its pod not two feet from the bike. I had been watching the pod for some time, and I silently damned the extra half an hour I had procrastinated over the paper during breakfast - if I hadn't, I could have shot the whole process, or at least the butterfly still with wrinkled wings. Nonetheless, I retrieved the camera from the top case and took a couple shots. I had no macro lens with me, so the 24-120 had to do instead. Natural morning light:







These are about 80% crops to fill the frame better than the lens allows. Other than that, minimum levels adjustment in post and that's it. Hope you like them, they sure made my morning!

DoctorIt

wow - i really like the composition in the third shot!

pathfinder

zero-zero wrote:

As I was heading out to work this morning, I noticed that a magnificient podalirius male had just emerged from its pod not two feet from the bike. I had been watching the pod for some time, and I silently damned the extra half an hour I had procrastinated over the paper during breakfast - if I hadn't, I could have shot the whole process, or at least the butterfly still with wrinkled wings. Nonetheless, I retrieved the camera from the top case and took a couple shots. I had no macro lens with me, so the 24-120 had to do instead. Natural morning light:






Hope you like them, they sure made my morning!

Hi Z-Z. I love hunting butterflies. Is it similar to this one? Perhaps? Shot with a Tamron 180 Macro.

zero-zero

Third one is my fave too, because of the composition taking advantage of the shadow and because of the backlight in the wings.

Pathfinder, nice shot! Not the same species though. I wished I had my macro lens with me this morning... and that the butterfly had chosen to plant his pod in something else than ugly concrete, such as the lush vegetation in your shot. But one's gotta work with what's available, no?

pathfinder

zero-zero wrote:

and that the butterfly had chosen to plant his pod in something else than ugly concrete, such as the lush vegetation in your shot. But one's gotta work with what's available, no?

My wife has about half of our backyard in Butterfly bushes I think. I caught a few more frames this evening...

I wish I knew the name for this one.....



This is a darker butterfly and I do not know its name either



And this shot of a Monarch had a surprise for me when I looked at it on the monitor - another moth in flight coming in for a landing. This will be reall hard shot to duplicate. This is real - no Photoshopping here.

All of these were shot with a 10D at 800 ISO so they are just a little grainy.



And to finish my evening off, this hawk flew overhead - I caught him with the same 180 Tamron Macro I used for the rest of the shots, but it is a significant crop. Not nearly as good as Rutt's osprey shots.

DoctorIt

pathfinder wrote:

My wife has about half of our backyard in Butterfly bushes I think. I caught a few more frames this evening...

And this shot of a Monarch had a surprise for me when I looked at it on the monitor - another moth in flight coming in for a landing. This will be reall hard shot to duplicate. This is real - no Photoshopping here.

All of these were shot with a 10D at 800 ISO so they are just a little grainy.

Thats soo cool! I love the other one in the background flying in!

winger

Is that what this thing is too, I thought it was a really big moth.

wxwax

pathfinder wrote:

This is a darker butterfly and I do not know its name either

Great!

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Great!

Fortuitous is all..... I din't see the darker bug in flight when I shot this - I only saw it later on the monitor. I frequently find things later in my images that I did not see at the time. Does this happen to you too Sid?