Little Wood Satyr

nichpr · 04-07-2007, 16:46

Came across this little guy while Geocaching with my wife and son - a great family activity if you are not already familiar with it.

This is a Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela) - a member of the brush-footed butterfly family.
In the early morning and late afternoon, Little Wood Satyrs bask with their wings open while perched on tree leaves or on leaf litter. Adults have a slow bouncing flight and will rise as far as the tops of tall trees. Males patrol in the shade to find females.
Wing span: 1 1/2 - 1 7/8 inches (3.8 - 4.8 cm).

f5.6 at 1/60 sec

Looking forward to your C & C.

- Paul

JMitchell · 06-07-2007, 20:02

Did you use fill on this one? Judging by your shutter speed (which = SB800 flash sync speed) I'm guessing you did. Nice shot, well composed, and great detail!

**Dabhand16** · 06-07-2007, 20:06

Focus and exposure are spot-on. Add a great composition and lighting and you have a winner

Boofers · 06-07-2007, 20:38

Nice capture and story, what is geocachung?

nichpr · 06-07-2007, 23:24

Thanks for the comments guys.

Jack, this was taken without flash - it helps to have a VR lens..........

I was checking out that bush with the red berries trying to find a shot and along comes this butterfly - sometimes you get lucky.

Boofers - Geocaching is a sport using a GPS receiver. The objective is to find a cache that is hidden by another geocacher using only the latitude and longitude coordinates given in the clue. There are 423,390 active caches worldwide, and over 2,700 in Missouri alone. All of these caches and their coordinates are posted online. Google Geocaching - an you'll get a bunch of links.
I look at geocaching as a walk in the woods with a purpose - everyone loves a treasure hunt. There is a lot of info online and that web site is a good place to start. We've had a lot of fun with it and have seen places and taken hikes we would not have otherwise.

**Markulous** · 09-07-2007, 23:24

Lovely contrast with the green leaves/red berries and the butterfly.

Maybe the berries on the left better if in focus but I know how difficult DOF can be with macro! I'd prefer the butterfly "looking in" to the rest of the shot - but both points are fairly minor in what is a pleasant enough shot!

There're are a few geocaching caches around me - tho' I've never actually bothered to go looking for them!

Charlotte · 10-07-2007, 00:16

This is a super duper shot Paul

Comp is very well balanced, colours are great, except I think there might be a blue cast, as the leaves look an odd colour + seem bluish, although the colour of the butterfly looks ok. Lovely detail in the butterfly.

Nice one, love it!

Gary Bagshawe · 10-07-2007, 12:45

Great composition

nichpr · 12-07-2007, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Comp is very well balanced, colours are great, except I think there might be a blue cast, as the leaves look an odd colour + seem bluish, although the colour of the butterfly looks ok.

Charlotte, you are right - that leaf in the middle (just to the left of the butterfly) was way too bright so I burned it back and the result is a gray/blue look to the leaf.

Question: How could I have reduced the brightness of that leaf and retained the green color of the other leaves around it?

- Paul

Stormbringer · 13-07-2007, 08:38

Outstanding shot.

Just occassionally it is nice to have a bit of luck and that butterfly arrived right on cue.

**Markulous** · 13-07-2007, 08:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by nichpr

Question: How could I have reduced the brightness of that leaf and retained the green color of the other leaves around it?

Problem I find is that when something is burned then burning back produces grey (which makes sense - burned means no more colour, so white to grey).

I usually resort to cloning, mainly localised around the area (luckily rarely as if I get burned highlights, which I do(!), I take another shot!). If it's a significant area then I might clone out the whole problem

Charlotte · 13-07-2007, 22:39

I too tackle burnt highlights using cloning. Anyway, here's what I did with your pic, Paul: Simply adjusted the colour balance by moving the blue-yellow slider nearly all the way to yellow. That resulted in very bright saturation, so I lowered the saturation of the green channel by -15. That's it. It has altered the colour of the butterfly, but as I don't know what colour it actually is in real life, I can't correct the colour of it.