www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I saw my first Silver-washed Fritillaries (2 males) of the year at Norton Green. I took some shots of one who was very obliging but the photo above implies that it is not a fresh specimen. Or maybe it is if the camera is fooling me The angle of the wings on the right side perhaps suggests some of the markings on the underside are showing through. Any ideas?

I also saw several summer-brooded female Green-veined Whites apparently looking for places to lay her eggs close to the ground. Does seem a bit early.

ATB

Peter

I don't think there is any issue about underside showing through but - if I may be so bold - you got the focus point wrong. The background is sharp enough but the butterfly isn't. Play around with settings such as spot focus - automatics don't always perform. Perhaps experiment with static subject such as flowers rather than skittish butterflies.

And don't worry about asking for help. I have just given my daughter a camera (Canon PowerShot SX520) for graduating with a better degree than either or her two brothers or either of her parents. Even so, young Polly isn't finding a more sophisticated camera easy. I anticipate quite a few more pleas for help.

Jack

Jack is right that the butterfly is blurred but I don't think it's just a focus problem - the butterfly moved as you photographed it! Did you find it had gone when you looked in the viewfinder immediately after the shot? The antennae show the movement very clearly and the colouration on the wing is due to it starting to flap - the white is the bramble flower, showing through where the wing has moved. These blighters move very fast

Mike

ps - just looked at the EXIF data and seen your shutter speed was only 1/30s - plenty of time for the butterfly to move quite a way!

Thanks Jack, I know what you mean. In fact, I am more than happy with some of my photos of 'static' shots but this Silver-washed was so 'jittery' that I was in such a hurry to take shots and not making the necessary adjustments .

Thanks Mike for your helpful comments and looking at the EXIF data. I hadn't realised that the shutter speed was so slow. Yes the butterfly had flown off very soon after I took the shot. If the aperture was set to f/4 thus allowing a faster shutter speed I might have obtained a better shot but again I'd lose out on depth of field. So increasing the ISO to 200 or 400 might be a better bet. I have a lot to learn . By the way, the Graham Houghton videos are brilliant.

ATB

Peter

I had thought about shutter speed being too slow. Modern cameras CAN be used "straight out of the box" in auto mode but for butterflies you risk blur due to rapid movement or missing the required focus point.

Lots of fun to be had Peter. We all get different enjoyment from photography. A lot of mine (and I think also Mike who has thousands of cameras ) comes from playing around with different settings, the end result being almost (but not quite) incidental.

Jack

Sometimes you just have to accept that you're not going to get anything more than 'record' shots! It happened to me on my recent trip to South Wales for HBF. In the heat, these butterflies were very skittish and there was no time to think about anything, other than grabbing a shot when any tiny opportunity arose! At times like that, I often choose Aperture priority with the lens wide open, so that the camera chooses the fastest possible shutter speed for the conditions.

Jack is right that I have several cameras (not quite thousands) but it is not wise to have different types 'on the go' at the same time. You really do need to be thoroughly familiar with the controls of one camera, when working under pressure. It needs to be instinctive: which way to turn a focus ring or which button to press in a hurry. For example, I had been using my Olympus a lot and picked up the Lumix FZ200 to find, for a few moments, that I couldn't remember how to turn the thing on