Butterflies in Flight Part 1 (Dainty Swallowtail)

Hi everyone, iv'e been a bit busy lately but I'm back
I did a few parrot shoots locally but on my walk in I kept running into Butterflies. Now I thought to myself if I can capture Swallows, martins and bee-eaters in flight why not butterflies.
So I spent roughly about 1/4 of my 2-3hr late afternoon Parrot shoots shooting butterflies.
Here are the results, not to bad for a quick afternoon shoot on the way down the bush track to the parrots, the Parrots were the main focus even though the area is too dark for flight shots but i'll post them at a later date.

I mainly got Dainty Swallowtails but also got a few Common Crow butterflies which i'll post for Part 2

Enjoy!

very good, well done

Mad skills.

Red dot?

EVF.

The red dot is tricky to get the framing right as I waited for these to get pretty close and the dot is way off at close distances due to it been so high above the lens. What I did was pre focus at a distance I expected them to come into view and pressed the shutter very quicky because keeping them in the frame is very difficult for more than a second or two.
For erratic things I much prefer C-AF + Tr, even though the tracking jumps heaps u only have a second or so to get the shot. I also keep both my eyes open and find it works great keeping the subject in view. U just have to get use to the EVF being a bit blurry.

Martin.au wrote:

Mad skills.

Red dot?

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

very good, well done

Stunning inflight captures Vas.............as always

cheers Trevor

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

very good, well done

thanks John, thanks for the comments as always 

Very nice ,well done as it's a hard subject to do.

Wow, pretty amazing shots and in the wild, too, without baiting. Nice job.

vass wrote:

My question is about the EXIF. I'm taking the photo above as an example but I could have chosen any other ones.

The EXIF says that the photo was taken at 1/3200. This is likely since the butterfly seems 'frozen', suspended in the air.

The aperture is F/6,3. Since the whole butterfly is in focus, with a focal length of 210mm, that's likely when it's at a distance of about 4 meters or more. OK that's fine. No problem.

But you were able to get an ISO as low as 800 when the speed was that fast. Was this butterfly shot during a very, very bright day or is there a mistake in the EXIF ?

When I shot at butterfly, I'm using an aperture of F/5,6 (about the same as yours). My focal length is always 60mm since the M.Zuiko 60mm is my favourite one for butterflies.

But to get a low ISO, my speed has to be as low as 1/125 sec while you were able to shoot at 1/3200 sec (25 times faster). I have to say that I shot butterfly inside greenhouses during winter while you live in Australia, during summertime. So your sun is a lot more powerful than mine.

So while I admire your skill and envy these wonderful shots, I just want to be sure that I can trust the EXIF that I'm seeing.

These are great shots - I guess that this kind of BIF (butterflies) is more difficult than birds.

Side note: you do not have to post so many photos - 3-5 should be sufficient.

Regards

S.

JeanPierre Martel wrote:

vass wrote:

My question is about the EXIF. I'm taking the photo above as an example but I could have chosen any other ones.

The EXIF says that the photo was taken at 1/3200. This is likely since the butterfly seems 'frozen', suspended in the air.

The aperture is F/6,3. Since the whole butterfly is in focus, with a focal length of 210mm, that's likely when it's at a distance of about 4 meters or more. OK that's fine. No problem.

But you were able to get an ISO as low as 800 when the speed was that fast. Was this butterfly shot during a very, very bright day or is there a mistake in the EXIF ?

When I shot at butterfly, I'm using an aperture of F/5,6 (about the same as yours). My focal length is always 60mm since the M.Zuiko 60mm is my favourite one for butterflies.

But to get a low ISO, my speed has to be as low as 1/125 sec while you were able to shoot at 1/3200 sec (25 times faster). I have to say that I shot butterfly inside greenhouses during winter while you live in Australia, during summertime. So your sun is a lot more powerful than mine.

So while I admire your skill and envy these wonderful shots, I just want to be sure that I can trust the EXIF that I'm seeing.

The EXIF is correct on everything but 1hr off on the time taken due to me never changing the camera time for daylight savings. Normal late afternoon sun behind me. Was actually a day half cloudy and sunny at times but obviously the sun was out for this one.

Thanks
They are definetly harder for sure. I could have just posted a few but thought id'e show that this is no fluke and the e-m1 has a good success rate.

s_grins wrote:

These are great shots - I guess that this kind of BIF (butterflies) is more difficult than birds.

Side note: you do not have to post so many photos - 3-5 should be sufficient.

Regards

S.

s_grins wrote:

These are great shots - I guess that this kind of BIF (butterflies) is more difficult than birds.

Side note: you do not have to post so many photos - 3-5 should be sufficient.

Regards

S.

As someone who attempts both I would say difficulty factor Butterflies to Birds is about 50:1.

I enjoyed the pictures very much and I was amazed at your skill in geting them.

Super set, hard to pick a favorite.

vass wrote:

JeanPierre Martel wrote:

vass wrote:

My question is about the EXIF. I'm taking the photo above as an example but I could have chosen any other ones.

The EXIF says that the photo was taken at 1/3200. This is likely since the butterfly seems 'frozen', suspended in the air.

The aperture is F/6,3. Since the whole butterfly is in focus, with a focal length of 210mm, that's likely when it's at a distance of about 4 meters or more. OK that's fine. No problem.

But you were able to get an ISO as low as 800 when the speed was that fast. Was this butterfly shot during a very, very bright day or is there a mistake in the EXIF ?

When I shot at butterfly, I'm using an aperture of F/5,6 (about the same as yours). My focal length is always 60mm since the M.Zuiko 60mm is my favourite one for butterflies.

But to get a low ISO, my speed has to be as low as 1/125 sec while you were able to shoot at 1/3200 sec (25 times faster). I have to say that I shot butterfly inside greenhouses during winter while you live in Australia, during summertime. So your sun is a lot more powerful than mine.

So while I admire your skill and envy these wonderful shots, I just want to be sure that I can trust the EXIF that I'm seeing.

The EXIF is correct on everything but 1hr off on the time taken due to me never changing the camera time for daylight savings. Normal late afternoon sun behind me. Was actually a day half cloudy and sunny at times but obviously the sun was out for this one.

Also worth mentioning is Australia's generally bright light when the sun is out or even in cloudy bright.

Excellent work, vass, your achievements are scary! LOL.

vass wrote:

Thanks
They are definetly harder for sure. I could have just posted a few but thought id'e show that this is no fluke and the e-m1 has a good success rate.

Do not "blame" camera for your success - you're the boss, you're the master.

Again, well done.

s_grins wrote:

These are great shots - I guess that this kind of BIF (butterflies) is more difficult than birds.

Side note: you do not have to post so many photos - 3-5 should be sufficient.

Regards

S.

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Cheers I had a hard time trying to decide what photo's won't make this thread

111jackny44 wrote:

Super set, hard to pick a favorite.

s_grins wrote:

vass wrote:

Thanks
They are definetly harder for sure. I could have just posted a few but thought id'e show that this is no fluke and the e-m1 has a good success rate.

Do not "blame" camera for your success - you're the boss, you're the master.

Again, well done.

cheers

s_grins wrote:

These are great shots - I guess that this kind of BIF (butterflies) is more difficult than birds.

Side note: you do not have to post so many photos - 3-5 should be sufficient.

Regards

S.

-- hide signature --

Camera in bag tends to stay in bag...

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[url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/14869355@N07/ [/url]

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