I had a similar frustrating time with a treefull of monarch butterflies. They must have been gathering to migrate because there were just a huge number of them. 'Wow. What a great photo oportunity' I thought to myself. But butterflies spend 90% of their time sitting with their wings closed and only the dull colored outside showing.
I spent two hours running back and forth between two trees, blew two rolls of film ($ cha $ ching $) and only got three decent pictures out of the deal.
Butterflies are made for digital photography.
A good technique to use in this case, or for any subject that you expect to make a sudden move, is zoom out so that there is a "cushion" of space around the subject to allow for your reaction time. That way when the subject moves (spreads it's arms/wings or lunges up/down/left/right), it can't move out of frame in the fraction of time it takes your finger to press the shutter release.
I use this technique a lot in my CONvergence photos to capture people gesturing. A person who talks with their hands makes a much more interesting picture than someone who just stands there.
Ah, I did misunderstand your intention with the giraffe photo. I thought you wanted an abstract look.
I never get constructive comments on my photos, even though I ask for them. It make me a teeny bit careful about offering them to others. I am certainly not deluded into think that my style is the One True style.
The other frustrating thing I've found about butterflies is that when you are trying to identify them if you have the underside of their wings, all the pictures in the books that you think might be the right kind are showing the tops of the wings, and vice versa. And that's not even taking into account the butterfly species where the male & female are different! It wouldn't be a big deal if not for my anal retentive need to put the names and taxonomy with my pictures...
And yes, butterflies are definitely digital photography material! I'm just so used to trying to crop in camera that I forget that I can just as easily leave a little extra space and use photoshop to trim the edges. When I'm shooting at the zoo, it could be a perfect picture of the critter and I won't be happy with it if there is a fence showing so I tend to crop in because of that too. Too many photo teachers requiring full frame prints makes it tough to purposely leave stuff I don't want!
I did want the giraffe abstract, just not so much that it was unidentifiable. (Not that it could be anything else with that pattern!)
I am certainly not deluded into think that my style is the One True style. Well, duh! My style is the One True style! ;)
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dancing_serpent
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Re: Cropping
Date: 2006-07-16 05:45 am (UTC)I had a similar frustrating time with a treefull of monarch butterflies. They must have been gathering to migrate because there were just a huge number of them. 'Wow. What a great photo oportunity' I thought to myself. But butterflies spend 90% of their time sitting with their wings closed and only the dull colored outside showing.
I spent two hours running back and forth between two trees, blew two rolls of film ($ cha $ ching $) and only got three decent pictures out of the deal.
Butterflies are made for digital photography.
A good technique to use in this case, or for any subject that you expect to make a sudden move, is zoom out so that there is a "cushion" of space around the subject to allow for your reaction time. That way when the subject moves (spreads it's arms/wings or lunges up/down/left/right), it can't move out of frame in the fraction of time it takes your finger to press the shutter release.
I use this technique a lot in my CONvergence photos to capture people gesturing. A person who talks with their hands makes a much more interesting picture than someone who just stands there.
Ah, I did misunderstand your intention with the giraffe photo. I thought you wanted an abstract look.
I never get constructive comments on my photos, even though I ask for them. It make me a teeny bit careful about offering them to others. I am certainly not deluded into think that my style is the One True style.
Re: Cropping
Date: 2006-07-16 06:53 am (UTC)And yes, butterflies are definitely digital photography material! I'm just so used to trying to crop in camera that I forget that I can just as easily leave a little extra space and use photoshop to trim the edges. When I'm shooting at the zoo, it could be a perfect picture of the critter and I won't be happy with it if there is a fence showing so I tend to crop in because of that too. Too many photo teachers requiring full frame prints makes it tough to purposely leave stuff I don't want!
I did want the giraffe abstract, just not so much that it was unidentifiable. (Not that it could be anything else with that pattern!)
I am certainly not deluded into think that my style is the One True style.
Well, duh! My style is the One True style! ;)