Butterflies

[Birma]

Thanks Greg

[Dr. Harout]

+1

[aster]

Good to see that a couple of neat butterflies stood still long enoug, Birma. : )


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[Birma]

Thanks Doc and Yildiz

Here are some more butterflies from a wet early morning in the wood. There was some sunshine to bring out these Meadow Browns to charge up their systems ready for another day. I think the first is a male as it has slightly less orange on the wings, but it could just be an older specimen as I think they also fade a bit as they get older (don't we all! ). The second may therefore be a female.


2012 Tiddesley - Meadow Brown by Birm, on Flickr


2012 Tiddesley - Meadow Brown on Thistle by Birm, on Flickr

Both A700 and beercan - very handy for chasing butterflies, and it is certainly easier when they are slower, first thing in the morning, than later in the day when their metabolisms have warmed up.

[Greg Beetham]

Those look like a very similar type too the brown ones Mark got Birma, (previous page) if so they must have crossed the channel at some stage but if so I couldn’t guess about in which direction or when, quite nice captures and wonderful bokeh.
Greg

[Birma]

Thanks Greg - the web says "Its range extends across Europe south of 62B:N, and eastwards to the Urals, Asia Minor and Iran. It is stable in most European countries." so Mark's was probably very similar. The ones I saw like salt and vinegar on their chips and Mark's likes mayonnaise - other than that, no different

[Anne_LilyofTheValley]

Great shots!

[Birma]

Thanks Anne

[Dr. Harout]

Saw this swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) resting underneath a flower (do not know the name ), so took my gun (a77 ) with the 50/2.8 macro, mounted it on my newly acquired Manfrotto 055CXPro3 carbon tripod with the 322RC2 joystick et voila

[Dr. Harout]

And one with Zeiss 2/24

[Greg Beetham]

Lovely shot/s and butterfly Doc, I think the wings look slightly better with the macro shot but the Zeiss has slightly better dof, and the bokeh is great in both.
Greg

Ps btw I meant to ask, is the new carbon tripod (congrats) much lighter than the aluminium version?

[Dr. Harout]

...is the new carbon tripod (congrats) much lighter than the aluminium version?

By about 0.7 kg. I didn't inquire about the price. Carrying about 1kg less is much more comfortable.

[Birma]

Wow Doc - what a great butterfly shot. I've always wanted to see one of these, let alone capture a picture. You did well to get so near it I think, and then change lenses as well! Stunning colours and a great shot of it hanging on the flower - goes straight to the top of the butterfly charts I think . Very interesting to see a comparison between the two lenses - both offer something a little different, but impossible for me to chose a preference.

Congratulations of the new tripod . I have the aluminum version - great 'pod but it is a siginificant weight to carry. I have looked at the carbon fibre ones in stores and they do feel great. I might chose the 190 version to save even more weight, we'll see. I have the 322RC2 head as well - great head, never wanted to go back to the three way head since.

[gio67]

a belter of a butterfly and the angle is spot on

[Greg Beetham]

I used to hatch out the large lemon tree butterfly occasionally back when I was a bit younger, you snap off the twig the chrysalis is on and stick it in a large bottle so when it hatches you most likely will be able to watch the whole thing (you can tell when they are going too hatch, the chrysalis turns a really dark colour from the black butterfly having formed and semi visible through the shell). Going by that experience they mostly hatch really early in the morning, sometimes still dark, and then spend quite a while hanging with their little crumpled soft wings and large abdomen pumping fluid into them to expand them (it doesn’t take very long, maybe 20 minutes, it’s the drying and stiffening that takes a while probably about another hour) and extruding fluid occasionally from the abdomen as well.
Looking at Doc’s photo it looks like it might be a fresh one with still a fair amount of fluid left over in the abdomen and the wings look really fresh so I don’t think it was very long since that one hatched, probably that morning a couple of hours beforehand. One good thing about fresh hatchlings is they don’t spook quite as easily as the battle hardened old veterans of a few days dodging things that might want too eat them.
Greg