Butterflies (Image Heavy)

So far it's been a pretty good summer for butterflies, and I've been out and about with the K3 & DA*300, coupled with the DA HD 1.4 TC, occasionally the K5iiS with this lens combination - I'm enjoying using this set up immensely. A few of my recent efforts below:

1. Marbled White & Thick Legged Flower Beetle



2. Small Tortoiseshell on Cornflower



3. Small Skipper on Cornflower



4. Large White on Bracken Flower



5. Meadow Brown on Bracken flower



6. Painted Lady in Evening Light



7. Red Admiral on Oak Leaf



8. Common Blue on Plantain



9. Gatekeeper



10. Green Veined White on Dandelion



There are plenty more in my Flickr album here https://www.flickr.com/gp/andrewhodder/ZB2196

Thanks for looking C&C/feedback always welcomed.

Andrew

Very good indeed . Composition, focus, lighting excellent. The Painted Lady might look better with a dark background, but you can't tell a butterfly where to stand.

Isn't the cornflower a scabious and the bracken flower a bramble (blackberry) flower?

I'll back your enthusiasm for K3 + DA*300mm + 1.4TC. Works well for me, too.

Steve

Thanks, Steve & yes to both of the above! Cornflower & scabious are at least vaguely similar, I have no idea how I managed to confuse bramble and bracken !!! Lack of sleep in the heat I suspect!

Really good set...lots of different ones, lots of colour and detail.

Regards

Karlo

It's difficult to get one really good shot of a butterfly in my experience - to capture so many is a testament to your technique and skills. Superb set, impossible to pick one or two as being superior to the others as they are all so good. Thanks for sharing

Really good set... particularly enjoying the backlighting on 8...

Best

Thank you for your kind and flattering comments - I've worked hard on developing stealthy stalking techniques, learning how to use the lens effectively (many of my butterfly shots are manually focussed), and then this summer I have started shooting in RAW. First outing was RAW+ 'just in case'. Ever since I've abandoned the in camera JPEGs & shoot purely in RAW - that makes a huge difference and allows recovery of some shots that would previously have not made the cut!

Andrew

Glad somebody actually has some butterflies to shoot - very few in the Midlands. These are really good too.

Excellent images, the DA*300, with or without a TC is a great lens for butterflies.

My favourites in this set are the Skipper, the Red Admiral and the Green Veined White on Dandelion.

Regards
David

Thank you - these are all shot in the East Midlands. We seem to have lots of butterflies about this year. I had 8 species in my garden for the Big Butterfly Count last weekend

Thank you, David. I have to admit that I have no regrets about getting the DA*300, even though I had to sell 4 other lenses that were used far too little to justify keeping. The HD 1.4TC just gives that extra range, with no discernible degradation of image quality. Together with both the K5iiS and lately the K3 it's a great combination.

Very nice - like them all very much.