Sunday, October 13, 2013

Lime Blue

The sixth butterfly in the series is the tiny Lime Blue ( Chilades lajus ). We have many of these and when the sun is at the right angle, they look like little flash of light everywhere. 


One of the thing that I have realised over the last few weeks is that I have been mostly using a telephoto lens to photograph the butterflies. Most of the books and websites on butterfly and insect photography generally recommend a dedicated macro lens for this kind of photography. But I found more joy with a telephoto lens rather than a macro lens.


With a macro lens, one can achieve beautiful closeups in never before seen viewpoints. Lovely eyes and scary mandibles all look beautiful. But what I enjoy is, photographing  the insect interacting with its environment. The way it flies, its graceful poise and its sometimes funny acrobatics all make a lovely image to me. It also gives me a chance to sit by at a distance and have photographs without stressing or scaring anything off. All this is possible with a telephoto, nicely fixed up on a tripod.
Hence I only use my macro lens to photograph really tiny insects or small butterflies and moths. Else 400mm is mostly my workhorse.

1 comment:

  1. This butterfly is so pretty...lovely purple hue on its wings!
    I love your take that you like to capture them while interacting with nature...

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