First serious attempts (and first posting)

[Alan]

Hi
Ive been taking pictures of flowers and other insects for a few years now but had never done much in the way of buterflies. However, thanks to some recent nice weather and lots of butterflies just around the cormer from where I live I've had a good stab at this for a couple of days. Here are some of the pics I've taken.

The camera is a Canon 400D and the lens on all of these is a Sigma 150mm macro lens with a Sigma 1.4x converter added. Some are taken with flash others with daylight or a mixture of daylight and flash.

I have to say that getting this close was a magical experience for me. More of this next summer I think!



http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/g ... pic_id=877









Comments etc welcomed. I've also got some from a recent vist to a local butterfly house which I'll post soon.

Nice to be here.

Alan

[Denise]

Hi Alan,

Welcome to the site. Always great to have a fellow Canonistian on board.
Lovely photo's. It's a real pleasure to get up close and personal with these creatures. Well done.
Hope to see you here again soon.

Denise

[barney_s]

Hi Alan - I joined this forum ages ago (but haven't contributed much since I moved abroad - but now I'm back!).

I've read the forums here occasionally, and can tell you that you'll meet a lot of knowledgable people here. I wish my photos were anywhere near as good as yours - maybe next year I'll take photography more seriously ... I've been mostly interested in conservation in the past.

- B

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Alan - and welcome from me too!

I agree that you'll certainly get good input on all manner of things here. Look forward to seeing more posts!

Cheers,

- Pete

[eccles]

Shame about the choice of camera as it'll only add to the herd effect that Canon already demonstrates here , but there's no denying your ability. These are first class shots, nicely and imaginatively composed with the eyes nailed in every one. Butterflies are fascinating creatures, so I hope you've now got hooked and will post more in future.

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Hi

with the eyes nailed in every one

What is it about the eyes, that you need to get right?
I'd have no idea which way mine is facing to worry where its eyes are I am just delighted when I actually get a photo

Em

[Alan]

Many thanks for the kind comments, everyone.

I must admit that I've got a thing about eyes being sharp in all of my photography but it's vital with insects and the like. I do find butterfly eyes harder to do than most other things and its always a struggle to get DOF right given the size of these things compared with the size of the eyes. With a fly or a wasp you know you've got the thing pretty much nailed focus wise if you've got the eyes right - ditto with people, I suppose.

I've got another selection to post and will hopefully get that done later in the week.

Cheers

Alan

[Susie]

Hello Alan,

Welcome.

Smashing photos! What are the Red Admirals on, is that Michelmas daisy?

[Alan]

Hi
The big problem I have in photographing fauna and flora is that I can barely tell the difference between a rose and a tulip and my knowledge of insects is barely better. So, the answer is I don't really know.
Alan

[Shirley Roulston]

Hi,
Were these photo taken recently, the flowers look really fresh. Nice photos too. Shirley

[Alan]

They were taken three weeks ago - I think it was the last Sunday in September and we had a mini heatwave up here (on Merseyside).