www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Had my first outing with the sole intention of photographing butterflies over the bank holiday - so total newbie.

A wander around one of our LNRs turned up plenty of small tortoise shells, peacocks, a speckled wood (I think - first for me) and a couple of female orange tips.

Lovely warm weather although that did seem to make it very difficult to photograph the butterflies as they were not settling much. Any tips here? A guy I know who has some amazing shots said it was best to go in the evening as they are settling for the night. He used to get set up with camera, tripod etc then gently relocate the butterflies with a piece of grass to his setup - is this the way its done??

Anyway, these are taken with a 80-400mm Nikon VR lens though I am not overly impressed by the job photoshop has done on batch converting them from NEFs to jpegs.........

Small tortoiseshell



Peacock



Speckled Wood

Hi Andy,

This is my first "proper" year at photographing butterflies. (I now have a DSLR)
I find personally, that early morning before it warms up too much is a good time for photo's. The butterflies settle more until they have warmed up. I presume that evenings would work too, but I never interfere with the butterfly. Just take my shot with as little disturbance as possible. I'm not saying that it's wrong, but I wouldn't do it. I prefer a natural pure shot rather than a set subject.

I am so jealous that everyone has been seeing Small Torts. I haven't seen a single one this year. I like your Speckled Wood pic.

Cheers
Denise

There isn't a real 'best way', but personally I wouldn't relocate butterflies as they were settling for the night unless they were put right back in their original spot afterwards. If that was done then I see no harm provided they weren't actually handled, but rather just coaxed onto a perch by allowing them to walk onto it. Denise's suggestion for early morning, or at least before noon, is a good one. The first thing many butterflies want is breakfast, and as soon as they're warm enough to fly, they head for the nearest nectar sources. When they're busy feeding, (or f-- fornicating) they're easier to approach.