Butterfly Hunting

[pathfinder]

It has been hot, humid and sweltering in central Indiana. I wanted to find some butterflies, so Nightingale and I went for a drive and found some butterfly weed in a ditch along side a cornfield. Lots of butterfies, but they would not sit still for 1/30 of a second. They are very territorial and continually fluttered around in the air in groups of 2s, 3s, and 4s.

So I found a moth...
http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/31293510-L.jpg

I shot dozens of frames trying to capture the incessant turmoil going on as the butterflies attacked each other, but found it very challenging to capture in still imagery. Video might work better. Here is one less than stellar example - I think I'll call it "Incoming!!"
http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/31292665-L.jpg

[Lord Vetinari]

The humming bird moth pic is excellent- not so keen on the butterfly shot though. I've tried getting pics of butterflies in flight and have always ended up with a blurred mess, so I appreciate the difficulties.

Brian V.

[bfjr]

Morning PF
Never have gotten a good B-Fly in flight yet myself :dunno
1st one is real nice :thumb

[pathfinder]

The humming bird moth pic is excellent- not so keen on the butterfly shot though. I've tried getting pics of butterflies in flight and have always ended up with a blurred mess, so I appreciate the difficulties.

Brian V. I feel a lot better hearing that LV!! I must have shot 3 dozen frames with electronic flash of one single butterfly perched on a flower that was literally hit by another butterfly over and over and over and over. I kept hoping that maybe one would be worth processing. I looked at them in Bridge, and dumped them all. Blurred mess is right!!

I keep hoping I can get a decent shot of a butterfly in flight, but that random up and down flutterby flight is hard to catch with a macro lens.

I agree that the swallowtail shot is not succeeding at demonstrating what I was seeing. Both shots are a good demonstration I believe of Butterfly Weed. This is the plant they were really attracted to.

[John Mueller]

I really like the moth.Havent seen one this year.
The BF have been few as well.
Thanks for sharing

[tmlphoto]

I really like the first one Path. Nice focusing job on a moving target. The antenna & body are razor sharp.