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I wondered if I'd get to see this species this year but thankfully, the easing of the lockdown restrictions meant I could justify a visit to one of the nearby sites yesterday morning.
In cooler, cloudier weather this butterfly will roost on bracken stems. Despite it bright colours it's actually quite well-camouflaged against the young bracken fiddleheads, and it took me 2 hours of searching to find my first one. I then spent the next 2 hours photographing the same butterfly as it stayed put! My aim was to try focus stacking with a rail, and hopefully get some images with the whole butterfly in focus, from antenna-tip to antenna-tip, and with a nicely blurred background. This proved over-ambitious, and I abandoned a couple of stacks part way through due to the breeze moving the subject between shots. The butterfly also moved its antennae between shots, only very slightly but enough that when the frames were stacked it had 3 antennae either side!
In the end, this was the best final image, made up of just 8 frames, each taken at f6.3:
Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr
And this is a single shot of the same butterfly, taken at f11. There's not much difference in terms of sharpness of the butterfly, but the background is much busier:
Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr
There's also a Strongylogaster multifasciata sawfly on the bracken; it was laying eggs on the bracken fronds, and a couple of times it walked over the butterfly's legs, causing it to move about!
All comments & critique welcome!
Dave
In cooler, cloudier weather this butterfly will roost on bracken stems. Despite it bright colours it's actually quite well-camouflaged against the young bracken fiddleheads, and it took me 2 hours of searching to find my first one. I then spent the next 2 hours photographing the same butterfly as it stayed put! My aim was to try focus stacking with a rail, and hopefully get some images with the whole butterfly in focus, from antenna-tip to antenna-tip, and with a nicely blurred background. This proved over-ambitious, and I abandoned a couple of stacks part way through due to the breeze moving the subject between shots. The butterfly also moved its antennae between shots, only very slightly but enough that when the frames were stacked it had 3 antennae either side!
In the end, this was the best final image, made up of just 8 frames, each taken at f6.3:
Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) by Dave O'Brien, on FlickrAnd this is a single shot of the same butterfly, taken at f11. There's not much difference in terms of sharpness of the butterfly, but the background is much busier:
Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) by Dave O'Brien, on FlickrThere's also a Strongylogaster multifasciata sawfly on the bracken; it was laying eggs on the bracken fronds, and a couple of times it walked over the butterfly's legs, causing it to move about!
All comments & critique welcome!
Dave
