This butterfly was so interested in this flower that he did not care about anything else. I wanted the photograph to be about the details of the butterfly, so I added an extension tube to my 105mm Nikon Macro lens to focus on the details. The hardest part of the photograph was dialing down the flash to the point where we would not blow-out the details—Cole did a great job!
Even at an aperture of f/16, I was able to get only his right eye in focus. I think that the shallow depth of field helps focus the viewer's attention on what I thought was the real subject of the photograph.
Cole somehow escaped the wrath of his sister while we were taking this one. Rather, it was Grandpa that felt the sting of "Little Grandma." The comments went something like this:
Chloe: "Grandpa, you are getting to close to the butterfly. You are going to scare him or hurt him. Back up."
Grandpa: "I am not going to hurt him; and, if he gets scared, he will just fly away."
Chloe: "I THINK you should STOP getting so close to him."
(Cole smiling off to the side)
Chloe: "Cole, make Grandpa stop getting so close to him."
Cole: "I want to see him fly off."
Chloe (as she is storming off): "Guys, I am going to tell Grandma that you are scaring the butterfly. She is going to put you guys in time out."
Cole and Grandpa (setting in time out): "Grandpa, you got me in trouble!"
SILENCE from Chloe and Grandma.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/60th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.
Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.
Again I like the photo but the backstory is the best part of the post. How long did you and Cole have to stay in time out? I am betting that your sentence was longer than his.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
I like the bright orange/gold background that lets the butterfly stand out. The diagonal lines of the attennae, legs, wings, and the edge of the petal all lead the eye to its face. I guess all the butterflies in Friendswood are hanging out at your place these days! Nice series, and I agree that the backstory is very entertaining.
ReplyDeleteFantastic image and great story. It must be a little girl thing, we have to be quiet every time we see an animal from the car so we don't scare it!
ReplyDeleteI really like the abstract feel of this image. Good work!
I do not know much about photography but I do like this photo because I normally do not get to see such details when I watch the butterflies.
ReplyDeletePati
I missed your body of work presentation so I will try to learn from you images on your blog. Did you rotate the picture to achieve the diagonals and then crop it?
ReplyDelete