Butterflies, Flowers & Topiaries w/ the 18-135mm!
1 week ago
6
What am I doing shooting nature or insects with the lowly 18-135mm instead of one of my big lenses? Well, in between my wildlife and birding weekends, I took a vacation up to Disney World the second week of March - wanting to avoid security lines and in the very hot weather, lugging around a lot of gear, I decided to just bring my A6600 and 18-135mm lens with me, no bags.
Epcot Center is in the midst of its Flower & Garden Festival, so the park is chock full of flowers and plants, both in natural form and in their famous topiaries in the shapes of various Disney movies or characters. I don't focus on flowers often, but a few caught my eye - even better, lots of flowers means butterflies!
The 18-135mm isn't a macro or big zoom, but it focuses reasonably close and the 135mm reach gives you enough on a crop body to get close and even get some background blur. All shots handheld, and posted at 2400 pixels on the long side if you view them in original size (feel free to correct me if I get any IDs wrong on the butterflies - I'm not as handy with all my IDs):
A buckeye butterfly, showing its false eyes
A zebrawing butterfly all stretched out
A large swallowtail butterfly enjoying the flower selection
Funky purple passion flower, aka maypop
I don't know what this white one was - it almost looked more moth-like - but it was pretty and worth taking a shot!
I think this one was a tiger swallowtail butterfly
This tiny colorful flower has a very presidential name - biden!
A queen butterfly
Topiary display of The Lion King
Topiary of Snow White and a Dwarf
Don't worry - the other 6 Dwarves were nearby
Goofy introducing the Flower & Garden Festival
Peter Pan facing off with Hook
Comments, questions, and critique welcomed - and remember, you've only got 18 days left!
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Justin
galleries: www.pbase.com/zackiedawg