Butterfly

[pecunium]

So, last Friday I was pruning the grapes. This does a few things, the most dramatic is encourage bud break. Less dramatic, but more important, to me, it directs the way the plant grows. I can take off dead wood (and so reduce the odds of rot), and keep the shape looking as I like it.

They are, in effect, giant bonsai.

So I was looking at the Tokay, and say some dead wood, ragged and old. It wasn't anyplace I recalled dead wood, but I might not have noticed. When I reached for it, to think about getting the ball-cutter and ripping it out, I realised that it was strange piece of wood.

It wasn't, you see, in need of removal, it was hanging from some threads, about 3/64's of an inch from the wood. It was a chrysalis. What with drill, and other things yesterday (potting up the blueberry, the wisteria, shooting some plum blossoms, consolidating the worm farm etc.) I missed the good light.

This morning I got delayed (taking the trash to the street). When I got there, I was too late, and this is what I saw, instead of a chrysalis waiting to open:



So I ran in, grabbed the 200mm Macro, slapped the 2X teleconverter onto in, snagged the tripod and went to work.

Happily she was taking her time in pumping her wings, so I was able to get things like this:



The lens combination made it possible to get really detailed images, without having to get so close she was really scared, or the lens was shading the subject.




If you click through, the full size image has a lot of detail.

I'm really glad it was on a grape (and I can only hope I have as much luck when the praying mantis egg-case, on the same grape, hatches), because I was able to spin it, to keep the decent light on her.

Comments

[greystroke.livejournal.com]

Beautiful ... well done

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

wow.

That's so amazing it hurts a little to look at.

[aeditimi.livejournal.com]

Those shots are incredible! such detail on the wings. I love the little places where the color changes from yellow to reddish.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Just wow. Beautiful.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Which one?

I wish I could figure out what I'm doing wrong. Because the degredation these are suffering from publishining on the web... horrendous. I think the colors are just this side of oversaturated, and here... blah.

The best of these, to me, is the first. She looks as though she's just dripping off the vine.

I also amuse myself that I think of the butterfly as female, when there's not a whole lot of dimorphism in them.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd been able to mount a 105 on the bellows (more that I had a 105 Macro to mount on the bellows) so I could use the swing. Then I could have had the same perspective, and kept all the scales in focus.

I have a few more scale shots I may post. If I do, I'll let you know.

TK

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

The first one, and the final. On the desktop, which has the good monitor, the colors are very juicy. Not so much here on the laptop.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

how lovely of her to be available for her closeup - and this reminds me I need to spend more time outdoors w/ the camera

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That first one is a real beauty, but I can appreciate the detail of the third/macro even if it looks a little washed out. Not your fault, I think; web colors rarely look right.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yup. The .tif I have is much more saturated, though the light isn't ever recorded correctly in things like this.

TK

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

Terry, detail and colour are superb.

FWIW, I'm using a Viewsonic VG2230wm monitor that's corrected to SMPTE standard.

You can find it at: http://brighamrad.harvard.edu/research/topics/vispercep/smpte/smpte.jpg

lwj
Edited to correct typo in monitor mark/mod.