Finally my butterflies from Wisley!

[incapete]

Straight after the Wisley meetup I jumped on a plane to Cambodia for a holiday so this is the first chance I've had to post my shots!

All comments and criticism is more than welcome... I don't do a lot of nature macro shots so I'm happy to learn how to improve.

All taken with either a Canon 40D + Sigma 17-70 (semi-macro) or a Canon 400D + 70-200 f4 L. The 40D had a Speedlite for some of the shots (not sure which now!)

 

[incapete]

And a couple more from the day...

 

[Grendel]

All looking good Pete. I'm heading over to Wisley today so I hope I can get some shots as good as these . Stunning detail in that last Robin!

 

[dade_f]

Great shot of the Robin in the last image

 

[SkunkyF]

Yep, that last shot is excellent,the blue and black butterfly is awesome

 

[Gremlin]

Nice shots PETE particularly like the first one.

Was I the only person who didn't take pictures of the robin before Clive scared it ?

 

[King of Groove]

Nice shots PETE particularly like the first one.

Was I the only person who didn't take pictures of the robin before Clive scared it ?

Excellent shots M8.

I didn't scare the robin! Him and I couldn't agree a fee for posing on my hand!

 

[incapete]

Cheers guys (and girls), glad you like them!

And special thanks to Ingrid for showing me a new flash technique for macro, as used on the flower shot in the second post which I took while practising with the bracket she lent me - I've been off putting it into practice myself and the flexi-arm is proving useful too, thanks!

Also, it was great to meet so many of you at last!

 

[Deleted member 3428]

Some lovely shots have come out of that place lately and these are damn good too

 

[deadkenny]

Excellent shots. The last Robin shot was a very close. I forget what lens you were using then.

I didn't bother as I had the wrong lens on.

Minor criticism, although to be fair I'm not really qualified as I doubt I could get the shot anyway, but would have been better still if the eye was in focus. But as I say I wouldn't have got the shot and it's something I need to practice far more to ensure the right bits are in focus. I've seen far worse on Christmas cards.

The top butterfly shot is great too. Love the contrast with the black background and the way the light reflects off it.

P.S. local paper had an article about the mystery of why the butterflies were disappearing. Guess they have had some kind of virus or something that was killing them off.

 

[incapete]

Excellent shots. The last Robin shot was a very close. I forget what lens you were using then.

I didn't bother as I had the wrong lens on.

Minor criticism, although to be fair I'm not really qualified as I doubt I could get the shot anyway, but would have been better still if the eye was in focus. But as I say I wouldn't have got the shot and it's something I need to practice far more to ensure the right bits are in focus. I've seen far worse on Christmas cards.

The top butterfly shot is great too. Love the contrast with the black background and the way the light reflects off it.

P.S. local paper had an article about the mystery of why the butterflies were disappearing. Guess they have had some kind of virus or something that was killing them off.

Yeah, the robin jumped to the ground after Clive tried to coax it onto his hand so it was nice and close - I had both camera bodies with me so I was able to switch to my 70-200mm as soon as we saw it in the bush.

Fair point about the eye - I'd not really noticed but you're right, the focus is on the body rather than the head/eye. I think I was trying too hard to push the background out of focus with a shallow DoF but I had hoped it would still be enough to cover a little robin!

Interesting to hear about the virus!

 

[n1kcy]

Great pictures, personally my favourite is the flower.