Caterpillar friend

JonaBeth Russell

I started these two milkweed trees specifically to attract Monarch butterflies. After about 6 months, we finally have a caterpillar! I'm contemplating setting up a GoPro on full-time power and get a time-lapse of this critter. But for now, here's a single shot from 2 days ago.

Sony a7rIII + Canon EF-S 18-135, manually focused, hand-held. Shot @ 18mp (in-camera crop mode) and post-cropped to 8mp. Enjoy!

pathfinder

Wow JB, great minds and all that, what great capture.

My spouse planted a milk weed bush in our garden for Monarch butterflies last spring, and we have one visit occasionally this summer.

I was disappointed because we usually had more than that several years ago, but lately just a single visitor once in a while -> Hence the milkweed.

But now our milkweed plant has four Monarch caterpillars - striped just like yours. - https://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Animals/Macros-and-Close-Ups/i-vB7dPKc/A

I don't usually think of insects as nurturing parents, but this shot made me wonder just the same - https://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Animals/Macros-and-Close-Ups/i-XxzNKD4/A

How do you like the Canon EF-S 18-135 on your Sony A7rIII ??

JonaBeth Russell

@pathfinder said:
Wow JB, great minds and all that, what great capture.

My spouse planted a milk weed bush in our garden for Monarch butterflies last spring, and we have one visit occasionally this summer.

I was disappointed because we usually had more than that several years ago, but lately just a single visitor once in a while -> Hence the milkweed.

But now our milkweed plant has four Monarch caterpillars - striped just like yours. - https://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Animals/Macros-and-Close-Ups/i-vB7dPKc/A

I don't usually think of insects as nurturing parents, but this shot made me wonder just the same - https://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Animals/Macros-and-Close-Ups/i-XxzNKD4/A

How do you like the Canon EF-S 18-135 on your Sony A7rIII ??

Great minds indeed! That shot of the butterfly on top of the caterpillar is fascinating. Would you mind if I share it with my biologist friend? He might have a super science-y interpretation to share.

The EF-S 18-135 on the A7r3 is a great combo. It's a lightweight lens, plenty of range, and the quality is solid, in my opinion. I had this lens hand tuned by CPS when they replaced a damaged front element. When it came back to me, it was the best / sharpest lens in my line-up, comparing to an EF 17-40L and EF-S 17-55 f/2.8. The only downside is you have to shoot in crop mode, otherwise you get the scope-circle effect. Canon EF glass does not do this, only the EF-S glass. But, that's not much of a downside in the end, seeing as how the detail is still impressive (to me at least) when cropped all the way down to 8mp.

When using Canon glass, a few of the Sony-specific focusing functions are disabled, and the Canon glass itself is just generally slower than Sony glass, in terms of focus speed. But, in the end, I have 2 Sony lenses (16-35 2.8 GM and 24-70 2.8 GM), each of which was over $2,000, and I have a handful of Canon glass that fills in the gaps for now. Sony is proud of their lenses, and I'm not raking in 'loose change' to support springing for their higher-end zoom lenses anytime soon. lol

pathfinder

Feel free to share my image, I have several of that scene, but this was the best from a photo standpoint I think. I have not edited or uploaded the others, but I am happy to help out if I can.

Sounds like your EF-S 18-135 is working quite well for you

Tony Britton

I really like the composition and colors in your photo. The background is wonderful, as well.

Tony