Something a little different today. I managed to take some lovely photos of some Monarch butterflies on the butterfly bushes in our garden last year. To get them bright, in focus and sharp, I used flashgun on my camera to give a little burst of light to freeze any motion. These butterflies are quite flighty characters, but this keeps them still enough!
I was amazed how perfect the wings were on these insects – you would imagine that they would catch against flowers of stems of plants and get damaged, but no, as far as I could see, they were perfectly formed.
I saw a pencil sketch of a butterfly from one of the artists I follow, and I wondered how close I could get with software and a pastel and pencil drawing application:
Reasonably good, I think!
Then, my mind got round to thinking about how I could use one of these to illustrate global warming and the sea level rise that is expected to come from the change in the climate. So, I had the idea of extracting this butterfly from its background, placing it against a blue sky and then using a special application that can create the effect of the butterfly and flower being immersed in a slightly moving ocean. The idea is that this is the last remaining flower above the surface of the ocean and the butterfly is taking one last meal before it vanishes. Strange how my mind works sometimes!
As I said at the start, an unusual story today!
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Deb Beausoleil
21 Mar 2022The story is intriguing, and I love how you’ve transitioned each image to follow your story. The detail on the butterfly is perfect. I wouldn’t have thought about using a flashgun to freeze the motion. It looks so natural and perfectly exposed.
Steve Heap
21 Mar 2022Thanks Deb! Yes, the flashgun was set so that the background was exposed to the natural light, but also to be a bit underexposed so that the butterfly and the flower are brighter and so stand out more.
jim hughes
21 Mar 2022We’ve planted milkweed, and other native plants, to attract butterflies. So far, just seeing monarchs but some new plants are coming online in our gardens this spring.
Steve Heap
22 Mar 2022That’s great – they are certainly entertaining to watch!
Louis Dallara Fine Art Photography
22 Mar 2022Great image and very interesting thoughts about global warming. I’m waiting for our butterfly bush to come to life.
Steve Heap
22 Mar 2022Yes, we are planting a couple more for this year. Always interesting to watch the butterflies!
Bob Decker
23 Mar 2022Ah flutterybys. Love them. I find them sometimes difficult to photograph. They don’t always hold still long enough!
Steve Heap
23 Mar 2022The flash helps (as does auto focus that is so good these days on modern cameras!)