Copper Butterfly (Two Photographs)
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Besides the incredible detail of this butterfly, what amazed me was the camera, the Nikon D500, 200-500 mm F5.6 lens at 500mm, ISO 1600, 1/500 of a second at f8. The D500 is a great camera and I cannot complain about the lens (though it did stick and I had to send it back to Nikon, who fixed it for free in under two weeks).
Cabbage Whites and Photolemur (Three Photographs)
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These came out nicely though I did find Photolemur left a colour cast; fortunately one that was easily removed. It may be that the A.I. is developed more for landscapes and people. Nonetheless Photolemur leaves me more time to look at issues other than basic adjustments and for that I am still pleased.
Damselflies (Two Photographs)
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It is almost always more interesting when your subject is framed, a part of the scene or reflected in shadow. All of these help give a photo dimension. It’s one of those things you have to get right in camera.
Photographing Bees (Two Photographs)
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One of the interesting things about photographing bees is that you can also get them with some great flower backgrounds. More importantly is that you get some contrast between the bee and the bright colours around it. The first photo was taken with an XT-2, a 50-140 lens and a Godox flash. The second was taken with a Nikon D500 and a 200-500 mm lens at 500mm. This is not to say you need a macro lens, it does go some way to say close-ups of insects can be done with other lenses, assuming you don’t mind cropping.
Comma Butterflies (Two Photographs)
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These butterflies are said to be common, but any butterfly as far I am concerned is a rare and welcome sight. They blend in so well with fallen foliage that they can only be seen in flight or against a brighter background. I caught these commas resting in a cool breeze some months back.
Skipper Butterflies (Two Photographs)
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You can’t always be sure everything you want is in focus, even with a depth of field button on the camera. That said I liked the juxtaposition of these two skipper butterflies and the softness in my view is of less concern. In black and white I tried to do a version more dependant on contrast.
Damselfly Portrait (Two Photographs)
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Damselflies’ eyes are very hard to focus on, they are the circles with a line through them. The sparkles and other lights on the insect are fluorescing spots of dirt. While this can be fixed, it’s often a very difficult job to keep the texture and not create a portion of the face with a single colour with a lack of tonality. Sharpness is measured by whether you can see the beard. I shot this with a flash, the damselfly was backlit.
