Portrait of a Lady

Bend The Light

Bend The Light

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Craig
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These are not wild...we bought a kit with some caterpillars and all we needed to "make" Painted Lady butterflies. The kids love it, and I also got my macro set up out for the first time in a couple of years...

Here are a few shots, shot with M42 Vivitar 90mm f2.8 1:1 Macro lens and a variety of extension tubes. Cheapo ring flash.

12Apr2014_Crysalid splitting by Bend The Light, on Flickr

14Apr2014 Number 3 by Bend The Light, on Flickr

14Apr2014 First Born by Bend The Light, on Flickr

14Apr2014 First Born close Up by Bend The Light, on Flickr

14Apr2014 Portrait of a Lady by Bend The Light, on Flickr

Quite pleased with them. :)
 
What a fantastic idea! i just googled these 'kits'... forget about the kids, *I* would love to see this! Must have been so interesting watching them grow!
Great shots too! :)
 
sunnyside_up said:
What a fantastic idea! i just googled these 'kits'... forget about the kids, *I* would love to see this! Must have been so interesting watching them grow!
Great shots too! :)
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Did you find the one called "Insect Lore"? That's the one we got.
And then you can just buy caterpillars and re-use the butterfly house. :)

Thanks
 
Craig excellent set of images - great to look at being so close up & detailed (y)
 
I didn't know you could get kits! Thanks Craig, the wife is gonna love her anniversary present ;)

Nice captures too, some great details. I would be waiting up all night to try and get an emergence :)
 
nice photos we do the same thing we get the live butterfly garden every year from insect lore we got some this week will upload some pics of the caterpillars in the stages
 
Nice and sharp, the last looks a little strange with the mesh running through the butterfly, quite a neat effect.
 
Thank you all...it's difficult getting the images through the netting, and I didn;t want to disturb them too much. One of our butterflies is not well, as it seemed to get caught in some silk left behind when they pupated...it can't open it's wings properly, and it's mouth parts are not formed properly. Amazing how something so small (the silk) can cause such major problems.

We plan now to get some caterpillars for my daughter's class at school, and then when they've done theirs we will get some more. :)

More pictures in the future. :)
 
simon ess said:
Just had a look at the Insect Lore site.

Wow! It's brilliant.

I'm trying to resist buying some stick insect eggs.
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Go on, do it! ;)

Mark_T said:
Lovely photos. I mean to do some butterfly headshot portraits when I can collect enough round-to-its; they look like bearded aliens.

If you like keeping insects you might like to read about Myrm's ants: http://www.antnest.co.uk/index.html

His accounts of the life of his colonies are fascinating: http://www.antnest.co.uk/myrmants.html
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Great! Thanks for the links...not sure I "like" keeping insects, but I like showing the kids, and I like taking the photos. :)
I will check out the links though...cheers. :)
 
its amazing to watch the make the chrysalis and hatch so fast when they do you have to be up early in the morning to see it and it happens in seconds the kids love it and i love it as well i also have had silk worms before just as amazing to watch them spin the silk and cacoons
 
essexmole said:
its amazing to watch the make the chrysalis and hatch so fast when they do you have to be up early in the morning to see it and it happens in seconds the kids love it and i love it as well i also have had silk worms before just as amazing to watch them spin the silk and cacoons
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Silk worms sounds like fun...maybe the kids' next insect gift. :)

LCPete said:
What a great idea:)
Love the first one beautiful colours on the underwing
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Thank you. As they are getting stronger now, I might get a decent shot of the top of their wings...they are nice too. :)
 
yea they were really cool stick to your hands when you hold them very hard to get them off lol but when you watch them make a cacoon its really cool i have a video on my youtube
 
Craig more quality additional shots for us to drool over - thanks (y)
 
Wow am buzzing after coming accross this page. Were just talking with the father inlaw last night . He was saying how he used to keep butterflies when he were a kid. We have (Les) at ours 3 nights a week for tea since he lost his wife a year back. Me thinks this would be fab for him and well maybe I would have to buy a lens and join the fun here :)
Is there a reccomendation as to what kits best to buy for a first try? best store too ?

Thanks
Gaz

Almost forgot fab photos, keep em coming :)
 
cargo said:
Wow am buzzing after coming accross this page. Were just talking with the father inlaw last night . He was saying how he used to keep butterflies when he were a kid. We have (Les) at ours 3 nights a week for tea since he lost his wife a year back. Me thinks this would be fab for him and well maybe I would have to buy a lens and join the fun here :)
Is there a reccomendation as to what kits best to buy for a first try? best store too ?

Thanks
Gaz

Almost forgot fab photos, keep em coming :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like we might have another convert to the cult of the close-ups. Gaz, my advice (if you have a dSLR or other interchangeable lens camera) would be to get a reverse lens adapter or cheap set of extension tubes to begin with. You can worry about getting a dedicated macro lens later (if at all).
 
No why did I look and read this.... now to bring it up with wife as great learning experience for our little ones.

Thanks for all the info and beautiful shots.
 
DayDreamer said:
Craig more quality additional shots for us to drool over - thanks (y)
Click to expand...

Thank you. :)


cargo said:
Wow am buzzing after coming accross this page. Were just talking with the father inlaw last night . He was saying how he used to keep butterflies when he were a kid. We have (Les) at ours 3 nights a week for tea since he lost his wife a year back. Me thinks this would be fab for him and well maybe I would have to buy a lens and join the fun here :)
Is there a reccomendation as to what kits best to buy for a first try? best store too ?

Thanks
Gaz

Almost forgot fab photos, keep em coming :)
Click to expand...

We got ours from a place called "Insect Lore" - here

Once you have the habitat, you can just buy more caterpillars as required. I don't know of any other stores...we just went with this as we were buying some other stuff from here for the kids.

These are shot with an old 90mm macro lens on a cheap set of extension tubes. But you could put the kit lens on a set of extension tubes (about £8 - fleabay) and get shots like these...the main issue is light. I bought a cheap ring flash (£20 - fleabay). Depending on the lens you use, you may have to set aperture BEFORE removing the lens and attaching the tubes...

This is my lens/tubes...
1609090_10201981007021536_447388043_o by Bend The Light, on Flickr

But I have never used expensive macro kit...all make do stuff. In fact, some of my best early macro shots were done with the kit lens on my old 400d, reversed (reversing ring £4 - fleabay). The diffuser on the flash is a plastic bottle with tin foli wrapping. The end is loo roll. :)

flash aaargh by Bend The Light, on Flickr


TimmyG said:
Sounds like we might have another convert to the cult of the close-ups. Gaz, my advice (if you have a dSLR or other interchangeable lens camera) would be to get a reverse lens adapter or cheap set of extension tubes to begin with. You can worry about getting a dedicated macro lens later (if at all).
Click to expand...

I agree. As I said above - my whole macro kit is cheap and cheerful. Mostly home-made or the like. :)

Cg_Girl said:
These are very cool Craig, my youngest would love to do something like this(y)
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My kids have enjoyed it. :) Go for it. :)

Tintin124 said:
No why did I look and read this.... now to bring it up with wife as great learning experience for our little ones.

Thanks for all the info and beautiful shots.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Glad you like them. :)
 
Last edited:
Craig thanks for sharing your kit set up which gives hope to me as a poor old pensioner I have no excuse now :)
 
Yay thanks for that. Completely forgot I have some of those old extension tubes and and old 50mm manual lens that I bought last year from the Real camera store in Manchester.

Gaz

Thanks for the info and more so the set up shots.

Edited just ordered from that store. Ordered just for the fun of it not even gonna take photos :) Well you never know :)
 
Last edited:
A very nice series,if you want butterfly pupae try worldwide butterflies,they sell everything for rearing butterflies at home,this is ideal for the very rare butterflies,

John.
 
cargo said:
Yay thanks for that. Completely forgot I have some of those old extension tubes and and old 50mm manual lens that I bought last year from the Real camera store in Manchester.

Gaz

Thanks for the info and more so the set up shots.

Edited just ordered from that store. Ordered just for the fun of it not even gonna take photos :) Well you never know :)
Click to expand...

Go for it. Look forward to seeing the shots. :)


john starkey said:
A very nice series,if you want butterfly pupae try worldwide butterflies,they sell everything for rearing butterflies at home,this is ideal for the very rare butterflies,

John.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will check them out. :)
 
Well, today was the day to release the butterflies. We released 4 of the 5 - the last one only emerged today, so we kept him behind to strengthen.
We also released the invalid butterfly - he wouldn't fly as his wings were not formed properly - and I doubt he would survive even if we kept him. Sadly, the ants took him while he was in the strawberry patch. :(

A great experience, though..and we plan to repeat it later. First though, we are going to send a batch of caterpillars to my daughter's class at school - they can watch some butterflies develop too. :)

1. A bit of sun before release:
18Apr2014 In the sun by Bend The Light, on Flickr

2. A bit of juice for the journey:
18Apr2014 Feeding by Bend The Light, on Flickr

3. On the brink...ready to fly:
18Apr2014 Ready to fly by Bend The Light, on Flickr

4. Annie (age 5) releases the invalid butterfly:
18Apr2014 Annie releases the invalid by Bend The Light, on Flickr

5. The invalid butterfly, before the anys took him:
18Apr2014 Poor thing by Bend The Light, on Flickr

Thanks for reading the thread. :)
 
Craig yet more superb shots - they are beautiful :)
 
I can't help feeling for the malformed one, but such is life :( Really interesting stuff and something I hope to try one day.
 
TimmyG said:
I can't help feeling for the malformed one, but such is life :( Really interesting stuff and something I hope to try one day.
Click to expand...

As you say, that's life. Butterflies may have problems emerging in the wild and wouldn't survive the day...only reason he survived so long was the fruit juice we fed them.

But a valuable learning experience for the kids, and good camera fodder for me. :)
 
@Bend The Light - my kit came today! Thanks for the heads up on this... My son and I (and my camera) are going to enjoy this!!
 
Can't get over how small they are! And yes, I can't wait to start taking pics! I've altered their home already with a couple of removable Velcro side panels so I can get a good clear shot lol!
 
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