Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui)
Ellis Park, Yellow Springs, Ohio
"Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.” - Drew Barrymore
In the gentle swaying lowlying grasses, a small speck of orange stood out. The breeze carried these grass blades around in a swaying motion yet this butterfly held on. Better yet, I quickly switched out the gear to my macro setup and moved in as close as possible to this beautiful insect. As I forced to stand up and mount the DSLR on a tripod as a lower perspective would hide this Painted Lady from view.
A shutter of 1/500 was just fast enough to capture the moving wind in a single frame. Timing the shutter release just right when the wings were outstretched was a challenge and test of patience. f/9 helped put a slight blur on the surrounding grasses. ISO 1250 kept the exposure lit well enough to work with later on the computer. In post processing I added a slight vignette to the overall image, helping put more emphasis on the subject at hand.
© 2019 Ryan L. Taylor Photography. All Rights Reserved.
