Yesterday's Butterflies

A butterfly expert friend led a few of us photographic types on a wander round a butterfly reserve yesterday (Alners Gorse, Dorset). Lots of standard 'from above, wings flat open' or 'from the side, wings raised' shots - not to mention plenty of the 'why doesn't it look my way?' and 'why did it land behind that leaf?' experiences .

Expert friend gets them all as a reward for his time and expertise, this forum gets a few that are a bit different. Enjoy!

K3 + DA*300mm + 1.4TC

Thoughts, comments welcome as usual.

1. Painted Lady (lots of them around)




2. Brimstone




3. Small Copper




Steve

Some of those 'head square on' shots can be really effective, as you show with the small copper. Nice set.

My favourite is the Brimstone head-on shot... nicely different!!

I like the Brimstone shot too, different.

I’m going to try this for myself next week. Was the 1.4 TC helpful? I was planning on just K3ii and DA*300 but I do have the HD TC.

The DA*300 and K3ii are OK for butterflies and I've got good pictures without the 1.4 TC. Minimum focus distance is 1.4m so you'll end up cropping if you want the butterfly to be big in the picture (unless you're photographing big tropical species!). The lens is plenty sharp enough and the camera has plenty enough pixels for that. What the 1.4TC gives that cropping can't is a bigger image of the butterfly in the viewfinder. I find that helpful for focus and composition, particularly for smaller species. But perhaps your eyesight is better than mine!

Try shooting both with and without the TC and see what suits you best.

Steve

Brimstone for me too.