Photo Swap

Diane with Alberta Postcards encouraged me to join the Scent of Water Photo Swap group on flickr. The July assignment - "In Motion."

My challenge to myself was to do something completely different. Shake up the anal photographer within me and come up with a unique perspective to a favorite subject - butterflies.

Usually, my goal is for crisp close-ups where every hair can be seen, every color illuminated perfectly. Neat lines and an intimate portrait of feeding or resting or mating. I must have well over a thousand - probably more - of nearly every variety of butterfly and the images all look pretty much the same.

As you can see, these captures are completely different. They were made lying down on the sidewalk with my camera, zoom lens attached. Various shutter speeds, apertures and ISO's were used on every shot. Because of the low angle, the background is normally sky or some of the granite boulders located within the garden. For the photo buffs among us the photo above was shot at 1/3 second at a focal length of 400 mm, ISO 200, F/40. The only Photoshopping at all was to clone out those dang dust spots. My sensor needs cleaning in the worst way.

The first 50 or so shots were experimental and pretty horrid. However, after awhile I forgot myself and simply got into the rhythm of shooting, adjusting, shooting, adjusting, shooting, and simply had fun with the process. Discovering the treasures captured was the payoff. There are a few more on my flickr account, to which you can view on the right hand column.