MikeOxon

[MikeOxon]

Several trips, I expect, Goldie!

I'm almost at the end of sorting my photos. It's taken around a day to sort each day's photos, so it's a bit like doubling the length of the holiday! I'm really enjoying re-living the trip through the photos and I expect the research on them all will take me right through until the next butterfly season.

Quite a nice way to spend the Winter

Mike

p.s. hope you are not suffering from the floods - we had a brief power-cut yesterday, which stopped my photo editing for a while.

[Goldie M]

Awful here at present Mike, yellow warning out for the wind and even snow forecast for weekend I think Goldie

[Jack Harrison]

Oh you poor dears with your weather .

Looking over my back fence a few moments ago.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

Looks great, Jack. I expect the snow will be up to near the top of the photo frame soon

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

m
Looks great, Jack. I expect the snow will be up to near the top of the photo frame soon

Not that direction (north west towards the coast) but have provisional plans to go in the opposite direction on Sunday to Tomintoul in the mountains [for lunch] after the snow.

Jack

[David M]

Oh you poor dears with your weather .

You'll pay for that remark next summer, Jack.

[MikeOxon]

Today, I finished the initial sorting of my photos from SE Asia - cropping, adjusting colour balance, etc - the next task will be select some that will show highlights of the trip.

My last few photos were taken at Singapore (Changi) airport, which must rate as one of the most remarkable airports in the world for its architecture and the internal gardens:

Singapore Airport - 16th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 17mm lens - 1/15s@f/4.2 ISO 400

I doubt whether there are many other airports with their own Butterfly Garden, in which to relieve some of the tedium, while waiting for the gate to open.

Singapore Airport - 16th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens - 1/20s@f/6.1 ISO 400

Unfortunately, our flight left in the middle of the night, so no butterflies were flying (the area is naturally lit, so was completely dark) but we did see a couple of recently emerged adults inside the rearing cages.

Singapore Airport - 16th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 12-50mm lens - 1/60s@f/6.3 ISO 400 (with flash)

Well worth a visit if you are passing that way

Mike

[Goldie M]

Fancy that, an Air port with a Butterfly garden, it must be the only one Mike, may be other Air ports will take an hint Great if your traveling with children, great way to keep them amused

I landed at Hong Kong air port a few years ago and got a taxi into the town, what an idiot I was when I found out I could have walked in Goldie

[MikeOxon]

It must have been a while ago, Goldie - the airport at Hong Kong is now on a separate man-made island and certainly not in walking distance!!! I think the old Kai Tak was considered too noisy and crowded.

[Goldie M]

It was years ago Mike, I was with my Husband who was working in the Philippines at the time when we got a telegram to say my daughter had given birth to a boy, I'd promised to go back (she was three weeks early) for the birth to help out, so I don't forget that episode in a hurry
I'd to leave my Husband who'd to finish the job he'd started, I put down in Hong Kong with a few hours to play with before taking off again so I went in and bought her one of those lovely silk Silk Dressing Gowns they make there for a surprise
when I look back now I remember the crowds and colourful streets, I also wonder where my confidence has disappeared to, it didn't bother me then to go in there on my own, now I'd think twice about it
My Grandson is now one of three, (he was the first) and finished University a couple of years ago so yes it was quite some time ago Goldie

[MikeOxon]

Oh you poor dears with your weather

Brilliant sunshine here, today! How's it looking your end, Jack?

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

Brilliant sunshine here, today! How's it looking your end, Jack?

Becoming a bit of a mutual wind up this. You know full well that we had a miserable day on Saturday.

Braving the mountains today on what should be a fine winter's day. Well I don't mean actually climbing UP mountains but driving through the snowy hills via Grantown-on-Spey to have lunch in Tomintoul (1,130 feet above sea level).

Assuming it is as scenic as anticipated, snow pictures later in my diary.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

I have written before about how pleased I was with the performance of my Olympus OM-D E-M5 on my recent trip to SE Asia. In fact, it led to me replacing the camera with the 'flagship' E-M1 model!

The only irritations I had from the E-M5 were associated with its 'compact-like' control layout, with tiny buttons that were too easily operated by mistake! The E-M1 has a much more robust control layout, at the expense of being a little larger overall.

Another 'carrot' that led me to the E-M1 was the promise of a firmware update, which offered some interesting new features. This update to Firmware Version 4.0 was released yesterday, so I have spent some time today exploring the macro 'stacking' facility. When used with the 60 mm macro lens, this feature enables the camera to take a series of photos at slightly different distance settings and then blends them together into a single 'stacked' image.
Documention of the new features is sparse but I managed to track down a manual (in English) on the Olympus Japanese website at http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/ims ... ver4_e.pdf. No doubt this information will appear on the Global sites in the near future.

Operation of the 'stacking' facility is quite simple: select [Bracketing] in 'Shooting menu 2' and then select [Focus BKT] and [Focus Stacking]. When used in this mode, the camera takes 8 photos automatically, varying the focus position between each shot. The camera then processes the individual photos into a single 'stacked' image.

In the absence of any butterflies at this time of year, I practised on some (artificial) flowers, taking photos at a range of apertures both with and without the 'stacking' feature (click on the image to enlarge):

Comparison of Stacked Images using
Olympus E-M1 with v.4 firmware and 60 mm macro lens

The left-hand column shows single exposures at a range of apertures [f/4, f/8 and f/11], while on the right are 'stacked' images at the same apertures.

The results show how the stacking has produced an in-focus image over a considerable range of distances from the camera. Even at f/4 aperture, all the flowers in the spray appear to be 'in focus'. The only adjustment in the camera is a slider control to set the size of the individual focus steps, which will need more practice to find the optimum setting for any given aperture. I used the widest step setting and, at f/4, there is a noticeable rise and fall in definition between the individual focus steps but this becomes smooth by f/8.

The new firmware brings other benefits, including an option for completely silent operation, by means of an electronic shutter. Since the camera can also be operated by wifi from a smartphone, this opens up the possibility of setting up the camera in the garden and controlling it by watching the screen on my iPad indoors! Since there will be no sound, it should be possible to take repeated shots of the birds in my garden.

Lots of new things to try in the coming year

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

Very clever Mike, but you'll no doubt p*** off Gruditch with in-focus backgrounds.

I haven't yet successfully managed [out-of-camera] software for stacking. Registax seemed very confusing. Any suggestions as to the easiest software?

Jack

[Pete Eeles]

I haven't yet successfully managed [out-of-camera] software for stacking. Registax seemed very confusing. Any suggestions as to the easiest software?

I use Zerene Stacker. It's easy to use, but it ain't cheap

Cheers,

- Pete

[MikeOxon]

As you know, Jack, I don't do competitions and Gary (Gruditch) is too good a photographer to need electronic aids like this!! His website at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruditch/ is always worth a look when in need of inspiration

I am interested in the stacking mainly for flower photography, where it's difficult to keep all those stamens and petals and sepals in focus at the same time. I did a few more tests yesterday evening and the in-camera software is clever enough to correct inevitable small movements when taking hand-held shots.

I'm afraid I can't help over software (which is why I was so pleased to find the in-camera solution). Photoshop (full version) can do stacking and there is an add-on called Elements+ that can add it to some versions of PSE. There's an article about stacking at http://www.dpreview.com/articles/571797 ... hotography.

Mike

[MikeOxon]

It's almost a month since I last posted some tropical butterflies from my Borneo trip so, perhaps, a few more will help ward off the winter blues!

Cethosia hypsea - Malayan Lacewing
Danum Valley, Sabah - 9th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/250s@f/7.1 ISO500

I've been spending quite a lot of time sorting all my photos and making some PowerPoint shows to inflict on family and friends. I've also been learning how insular my approach to butterflies has been, limiting myself to a mere 58 or so British species - all of which are fairly readily distinguishable from one another.

In Borneo there are, apparently, 625 species within the Kinabalu National Park alone and, as I examined my photos, I soon came to realise that many of those similar-looking yellows, browns, etc. were, in fact, different species. Again, while 'common' names might be adequate for our tiny British list, it is quite an achievement to get identification of these tropical butterflies down to the Generic level, while pinpointing a species from a photograph alone may just not be possible.

The publication date of the forthcoming Borneo guidebook has been pushed back to next February, so I have been turning to other sources of information. As an example of the 'paper chase' involved, see the following photo, which has some resemblance to our Gatekeeper, suggesting that I started by looking at the 'Browns' (Satyrinae)

Mycalesis marginata
Kinabalu NP, Sabah - 27th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/640s@f/8 ISO640

My little guide to the Butterflies of Peninsula Malaysia has photos of several potential candidates called 'Bush-Browns', in the genus Mycalesis, but it only shows underside views. So I put 'Mycalesis Borneo' into Google images and scanned through until I saw a likely image in a blog, labelled 'Mycalesis marginata ?' (a species not in my book). I narrowed my image search to this species and one of the images shown was a plate from an old book with the intriguing title 'RHOPALOCERA EXOTICA' by H Grose Smith & W F Kirby (1887-1892).

Next, I turned to that treasure trove of 'out of copyright' books: the Internet Archive, from where I could download all three volumes and read a detailed species description, which seemed to fit very well. Later, I found that I also had some photos of the underside of the same species, taken on a different day:

Mycalesis marginata
Kinabalu NP, Sabah - 28th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/500s@f/8 ISO640

The pattern of eyespots on the underside matches the description in the above book. This search took most of an afternoon and I have 242 butterfly photos to work through, so it might take a little time

I have photographed several large yellow Swallowtails and had thought, at the time, that they were all the same but they are not! To finish this post with some nice bright colours, here are examples of the three species involved:

Troides amphrysus
Poring, Sabah - 29th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/400s@f/6.3 ISO1000

Troides andromache
Kinabalu NP, Sabah - 27th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/1250s@f/6.3 ISO640

Troides helena
Poring, Sabah - 29th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 12-50 mm lens - 1/160s@f/8 ISO1000

Mike

[Goldie M]

Beautiful Butterflies Mike, I thought at first you'd been to a Butterfly house until I started to read your post

You must have had a brilliant holiday just photographing these Tropical Butterflies, your research also sounds like it's going to keep you very busy for a while as well Goldie

[Jack Harrison]

....Gary (Gruditch) is too good a photographer to need electronic aids like this!! His website at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruditch/ is always worth a look when in need of inspiration

I agree that he is so damn good as to be irritating. I suggested to Gary some while ago that he should turn professional. But no - he didn't think that was the right way to go.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

I'm continuing to fill these dark, if mild, Winter days with trying to identify all my butterfly photos from Sabah. Luckily, out of my 242 photos, a lot are multiple shots of the same species, so I'm now down to a mere 73, still to be identified!

I am very grateful to Guy Padfield, who has provided helpful suggestions. I have found it to be an interesting task, trying to get to grips with a vastly more complex problem than sorting my British butterfly photos. Indeed, choosing a 'favourite' for the weekly series of posts has provided some light relief from the bigger task

In one of my earlier posts, Guy corrected my identification of a 'Yeoman' and, with a little more experience, I think I have found shots of both the species involved, taken at different locations - shown below:

Cirrochroa emalea (Malayan Yeoman)
Danum Valley, Sabah - 7th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO1000

Cirrochroa orissa (Common Yeoman)
Kinabalu NP, Sabah - 30th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/500@f/7.1 ISO400

C.orissa has a much brighter bar on the forewing, whereas C.emalea has a prominant small white patch near the leading edge of the hind-wing.

Here is one with a similar colour scheme but from a different Genus - note the different shape of the forewing:

Cupha erymanthis (Rustic)
Poring, Sabah - 29th September 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/1000@f/11 ISO1000

Natural selection, in such a rich environment, provides all sorts of puzzles for the observer, such as mimicry, where one species acquires an advantage by deceiving a predator that it is a different distasteful species. Two more near 'look-alikes' are:

Athyma pravara (Lance Sergeant)
Danum Valley, Sabah - 9th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/400s@f/7.1 ISO500

Neptis hylas (Common Sailor)
Sepilok, Sabah - 2nd October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/500s@f/7.1 ISO1000

I find it interesting that that the white band, formed by scales on the wing, is replicated across the top of the body of A.pravara. There are also coloured markings on the body that I thought, at first, were photographic artefacts but can be seen clearly in other photos on the web!

Another example of natural selection affording protection is provided by one of my photos of a ' Great Mormon'. There should be a red patch on the end of the hind wing but it appears to have successfully attracted a bird-strike, well away from more critical parts of the butterfly!

Papilio memnon (Great Mormon)
Danum Valley, Sabah - 7th October 2015
Olympus E-M5 with 40-150 mm lens - 1/800s@f/9 ISO1000

As before, I welcome any corrections to my identifications - it's all a fascinating learning experience for me
Mike