Butterfly Wonderland

Earlier this week, I visited Butterfly Wonderland with some friends from the Terravita Photography Club. Our visit was a club field trip to experience photographing the butterflies. This location’s centrepiece is a large atrium, naturally lighted and constantly humidified to keep its inhabitants warm and comfortable. (Not so comfortable for the visitors).

I have been experimenting with macro photography and tried many of my pictures using extension tubes fixed between the camera and the lens to enable me to move in more closely on my subject. The butterflies were okay with this and I was able to focus the lens I was using (70-200 mm, f2.8 telephoto) in much less distance, about 24 inches (60 cm). Without the extenders, this lens cannot be focused from less than 3′-11″ (114 cm). I’m getting much closer and of course, the subjects appear larger in the image as a result. The challenge with all macro shots is a reduction in depth-of-field. Even at small aperture settings, proximity to the subject can dramatically reduce the areas of the image that are in focus. The effect is further exacerbated by using a long lens with a greater focal length. I also took some pictures without the extension tubes and found it much easier to deal with depth-of- field.

Two examples:

This first picture was taken using the extension tubes. The subject is not perpendicular to the plane of my camera. The slight angle has increased the distance of his right wing tip from the camera and from where I was focused (between his body and the left wingtip). The depth-of-field is so shallow that right wing is increasingly out of focus as you look to the right. Not serious but noticeable.

This next picture was taken without the extension tubes. Not only is the butterfly uniformly focused but the background flora is also fairly sharp, indicating substantially greater depth-of-field. I needed to stand further back to be able to focus this image, but it was much easier. If it looks equally close and detailed, that is achieved by cropping the image after it was taken.

I can see that I still have much to learn about macro (close-up) photography.

I’ve included the remainder of today’s pictures in a slideshow. Click on the right side of the images to advance; on the left to reverse direction. Enjoy the beauty of these colourful creatures.