Couple Of Butterflies

[DigitalScape]

The Blue Morpho (also known as Peleides Blue Morpho, Common Morpho, or The Emperor) - found in Mexico, Central America, northern South America, Paraguay, and Trinidad.



Doris Longwing - It is found from Central America to the Amazon. There is considerable color and pattern variation (subsequent images will show this)



Both shot at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens - Butterfly Exhibit in a large conservatory.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[Wavelength]

Dreaded beauty

[DigitalScape]

Thank you John and Nandakumar for your comments.

[IzzieK]

Excellent shots both, John. I have to visit our Butterfly House sometime. I keep telling myself that I will but I kept forgetting when I already have a project theme in mind. Maybe next week. This will be a good idea. I will have to wait till Dave H respond to my question about changing camera lens first...and what would best to use in that moisture environment.
Anyway, that thought taken cared of, between the two shots, I like #1 best if I may be allowed to chose between the two. It looked like the wings curves instead of spread flat like other butterflies do because of the colour.

[ScoutR]

Both beautiful, and so nice that you found a Blue Morph willing to show it's true colours. I was very patient with one at a butterfly conservatory a few years ago, and it would not open its wings for more than a millisecond.

If they were my shots, I think I would try to either crop the top of the Blue Morph shot, or clone to extend the leaf to the edge of the frame. To my eye the out of focus butterfly in the background hurts the shot.

I like the composition of the longwing but it seems a bit dark at the top of the wing, and I wonder if it would be possible to lighten that up a bit so that the top of the wing doesn't fade into the background. I would probably do some cloning of the extra leaves, or at least try to tone down the very bright one at the left. That's just me though, I can never leave well enough alone.

[bnnrcn]

Seeing so lovely butterfly shots in CinC recently makes me want to buy a macro lens, but I have to stick with my landscape shots as I need to improve myself. I will certainly buy a macro lens and try some flower and butterfly shots in the future though. Thanks for sharing those beautiful images

[DigitalScape]

Thank you Izzie, Wendy, and Binnur for your comments and feedback/suggestions.

Izzie, I shot these with a 180mm macro lens, and a external flash (two flash heads) on a custom bracket that allow me to move the two flash heads independently. The 180mm gave me plenty of working room, so I was not right up on the butterfly. To prevent the camera lens from fogging up when I went into the very moist environment, I bagged my camera in a zip-log bag the night before (at home in a relatively dry environment) and waited five minutes in the warm, moist butterfly environment before opening the bag. This prevented the lens fogging.

Wendy, thank you for your suggestions. I'll look into them.

[Dave Humphries]

Hey John,

You got a Blue Morpho with the wings spread, I am envious, since I failed and only got wings closed - as you can see in Pics 3 and 4 here - and I see I'm not alone.

I like the low angle of the second too.

I agree with Wendy's thoughts.

Cheers, Dave

[IzzieK]

Thank you for the instructions. I will remember to do that...

Thank you Izzie, Wendy, and Binnur for your comments and feedback/suggestions.

Izzie, I shot these with a 180mm macro lens, and a external flash (two flash heads) on a custom bracket that allow me to move the two flash heads independently. The 180mm gave me plenty of working room, so I was not right up on the butterfly. To prevent the camera lens from fogging up when I went into the very moist environment, I bagged my camera in a zip-log bag the night before (at home in a relatively dry environment) and waited five minutes in the warm, moist butterfly environment before opening the bag. This prevented the lens fogging.

Wendy, thank you for your suggestions. I'll look into them.