Unless otherwise
noted,
photos are of free, unrestrained butterflies. Photos are mostly
of
local butterflies, in Kane County or western DuPage County,
Illinois.
Many of the photos were taken at Nelson Lake Marsh, about 8 miles west
of Fermilab in Kane County, Illinois, where I am a volunteer butterfly
monitor.
Photos through the
year 2001 were taken with my personal Sony Hi-8 camcorder and
video-captured
using "Snappy" (by Play, Inc.) on my Dell PC at home. One might
think,
as I did at first, that it would be easy to wave the camcorder at
active
butterflies and select good shots with video-capture software.
However,
not only does a camcorder, like any camera, have a certain "shutter
speed"
which cannot freeze rapid motion, but I found that much video is not in
truly sharp focus. So I use the camera much like a still camera,
manually focussing and manually adjusting exposure with a resting
butterfly
in view. Thus, I end up with about 5 to 10 seconds of video per
shot,
and the whole summer of photos requires only about an hour of video
tape.
It is quite easy to select and capture just the desired pose on screen
from video of, for example, a butterfly pumping its wings or actively
getting
nectar at a flower. Although the quality of video capture is
limited,
the camcorder is an easy way to obtain reasonably good photos.
From 2002 through 2005,
most photos are taken with a Nikon 885 digital camera, providing better
resolution and better color. One of my first with this camera and
still one of my favorites is of the mating pair of Great
Spangled Fritillaries.
In 2006, I switched to
a Canon A620. I use the compact "point and shoot" camera in
close-up mode, just a few inches from the butterflies. This
allows me to easily carry the camera on walks in order to take
advantage of opportunities. Photos are then also in natural
light, without flash.
The problem with this method, of course, is to get
very close to resting
butterflies. Some butterflies, like the Coppers and the Gray
Comma, make it easy by repeatedly returning to the same flower or
perch.
A cool, sunny day when the butterfly is warming itself in the sun or an
extremely attractive nectar source like thistle can provide relatively
tame butterflies. However, many of the photos, like those of the
female dark form of the the Tiger
Swallowtail, were just lucky encounters, and the butterflies were
gone
seconds after shooting the picture.