TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING BUTTERFLIES

Tom & I love to photograph “fluttering Flowers” aka butterflies. Butterflies are like self-propelled flowers.

Tom & I met through photography, we love all aspects of nature photography, and we spend much of our time like photographic nomads, experiencing photographic “zugunruhe” (the migratory restlessness experienced by birds and other animals which causes them to start migrating when the conditions are right). Both “zugunruhe” and “FOMO” (fear of missing out) inspire us to travel to the places where the flowers blossom and the birds flock.

Where to find Butterflies?

1. Local parks
2. Your Yard! Especially if you keep it pesticide free or better yet get your yard ‘wildlife habitat certified’.
3. Zoos often have butterfly exhibits and encounters.
4. Butterfly Conservancies

What are butterflies?

According to Wikipedia “Lepidoptera (/ˌlɛpɪˈdɒptərə/ LEP-ih-DOP-tər-ə) is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans) with about 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera” around 10-20% are butterflies and the rest moths). Most slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph. But the fastest (some skippers) can fly at ~30 mile per hour or faster.

Lepidos is Greek for “scales” and ptera means “wing”. Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings (moths and butterflies are the only insects with scaly wings). Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton.

The orange and black monarch butterfly is the “poster child” for the butterfly world, much like the red-eyed green tree frog is for the rain forest.

The lime green Lunar moth with its curved tail wings is the most well-known of the moths, although not the most plentiful moth.

Fun Fact: The lunar moth (and many other moth species) has no mouth, existing for a short time just for romance. They are undistracted by hunger as the males follow invisible trails of pheromone molecules (sometimes as far as seven miles away) to find females) you can sex a moth by the size of their antennae, as males have a much larger and pronounced antennae. Since most moths do not have a mouth, and since many moths are active at night, they have larger bodies for energy.

Butterflies also have a proboscis (an elongated mouth part that is flexible and tubular like a straw) that enables a butterfly to extract sweet nectar from the flowers it feeds upon.

TIP: Enjoy being able to slow down, stop time, and “see the unseen”, in this case the proboscis. Current lenses, combined with getting in closer and or shooting at multiple frames per second allow you ample opportunity to see the unseen. When butterflies first emerge from their chrysalis their proboscis is not fully developed. In fact, the proboscis is actually split in two and they must curl and uncurl it repeatedly until it fuses or zips together.

TIP: Look for a good background first (sometimes even before finding your subject)

• Look for a non-distracting background, greens always work, but colors at opposite ends of the color wheel also make great backgrounds.
• If your flower is in a moveable planter perhaps move it to have a more pleasing background, or a background that is further way.
• If your flower is not in a movable planter, then plant something colorful in a planter and move it to e your portable background.
• The blue sky can make for a great background, and you can make use of the articulating LCD screen for easy composition.
• Even a white sky can provide good background and you can even create silhouette, again, can make use of the camera’s articulating LCD screen for an easy composition.

Choose a good background. Taking the time to seek out pleasing or non-distracting background can make a big difference. Sometimes I will find the pleasing non-distracting background and wait for a butterfly to come.

TIP Try to get eye level with the butterfly.

Sometimes this can mean getting down on the ground, like Tom when he is photographing these tiger swallowtail butterflies getting the salts and amino acids off the road.

Alternatively, this could be achieved by using your articulating flip out LCD screen, lying on the ground, or planting flowers in raised beds so your flowers are higher.

TIP The best gear for photographing butterflies is the gear that you have with you

Handholding is very appropriate when photographing butterflies, but if you are going to use a tripod, a focusing rail can be a big help, allowing you to move in small increments forward and back and left and right without moving your tripod.

These are the four MAIN lenses that I used to photograph butterflies, moths, dragonflies and caterpillars, but in reality, I have photographed butterflies using many of the lenses in my camera bag, -why? Because that is the lens I had with me for another subject and along fluttered by a butterfly.

I have photographed butterflies using many different Olympus/OM SYSTEM cameras: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III, OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1X, OM SYSTEM OM-5 and the OM SYSTEM OM-1. For some subjects, such as birds or night photography the specific camera model with its specific specifications and or computational technologies can be very instrumental in obtaining a higher “keeper rate” but luckily butterflies require patience more than “technology” -so the best camera for butterflies is likely the Olympus/OM SYSTEM camera that you already own.

I have photographed butterflies using many different Olympus/OM SYSTEM lenses. For butterflies most often used: M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO Lens, M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO Lens, M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO Lens, M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens.

Occasionally used: M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-400mm f/4.5 TC1.25X IS PRO Lens (great bokeh and the minimum focusing distance is ~4.27 feet), M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO Lens, M.Zuiko Digital ED 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS Lens.

Currently, if I am about to go out intentionally to photograph butterflies, I put my OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO Lens on my OM SYSTEM OM-1 camera body.

Why? See my three main reasons below, but in reality, butterflies are a photogenic subject that, as explained above, can be captured with a wide variety of Olympus/OM SYSTEM cameras and lenses.

Which is the best “butterfly” lens?

The one that you have with you!

1. I love the reach as my 90mm is 180mm FFEQ (full frame equivalent) which means that I do not have physically to get as close to my subject as I would with shorter focal lengths, which lessens the risk scaring our flying, crawling, and running subjects away.

2. I love the focus limiter switch on the 90mm macro lens, it very practically placed on the lens barrel of the 90mm lens. When photographing I often want to capture the entire subject in its environment to capture the essence of my subject -as well as the details. This well thought out focus limited switch means that I can easily photograph the whole subject and then go in close for the details. The placement of this focus limiter switch and its ease of use means that with one finger I can move the switch and without looking up from my camera I can move in close for Super Macro mode.
3. I also love the fact that I can push the clutch in and go to 1X or 2X quickly, manually focusing my subject and then pushing the clutch back out if I need autofocusing for focus stacking or focus bracketing. The fact that the lens auto-focuses at 2X (or 2.8X with the MC14 or 4X with the MC20) is an amazing feature as well.

TIP: Think of yourself as a sundial and point your shadow towards your subject.

Try to orient yourself so that the sun is to your back (think of your shadow as a sundial and you want your shadow pointing towards your subject), the same as you would do for bird photography. But it is also OK to sidelight if you have a better background on that sun angle, and backlighting, rim-lighting, and silhouettes can have impact for certain images too. Backlighting can allow you to highlight the translucent property of many butterfly wings.

TIP: Watch and learn your subject -pays off!

Wait for the action, even subtle action like the proboscis angle, can make a big difference for the compositional impact and storytelling appeal of your photograph.

The difference between these two images, is subtle, but the composition and storytelling and impact are greater in the image on the left. We read left to right, so we come in from the left, transverse up and around the butterfly, to the proboscis, which leads us right back into the scene. The image on the left, without the curve of the proboscis we instead lead the viewer to the antennae and out of the frame!

TIP Use a polarizing filter

As long as there is enough light, use a polarizing filter. The polarizing filter (purchase a good quality one, if you can only afford one good quality one purchase it in the diameter largest size lens and purchase some inexpensive step up rings. For example, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens has a 77mm front element, so you would purchase a 77mm polarizing filter and then some step up rings for your 72mm lens, 62mm lens, etc.

Polarizers make the photograph more saturated, especially for leaves (and skies and water) and they help to eliminate bright areas that draw the viewer’s eyes away from the subject.

Composition Tips

• Which position should you photograph a butterfly? Wings open? Wings closed? Head on? Profile? The answer is yes! They are all effective. If you are going for a profile, try to get your camera’s sensor parallel to the wing as that will increase DOF.
• Try not to place your subject smack in the middle. Try having negative space on one side and using either “the Fibonacci ratio” or the “rule of thirds.” When you look through your viewfinder or at your LCD, imagine a tic-tac-toe grid over the composition and place your subject in one of the four “power points” You can turn your grid on in your Olympus or OM SYSTEM camera to aid you. I have mine on in red.
• Try shooting both a vertical and horizontal composition.
• Do a “border patrol” and make sure that there are not distracting things in the corners/of the image.
• Compose with a leading line, a point of interest, a patterns/textures, or compose so the image rads left to right.
• Compose your image so that the image “reads” left to right for a stronger story or better impact.

Camera Settings

• Determine the cadence (pace and rhythm) of the butterfly and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. For a butterfly intent on the pollen in the flower 1/100 is often fast enough, but for a flying butterfly increase your shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/2000 or higher.
• Manual is best because you can control both your shutter speed and your aperture.
• Aperture priority will let you control your aperture, both for the background and for the DOF of the butterfly itself.
• Shutter priority will let you choose your shutter speed, say 1/1000 sec, and it will use the exposure triangle to determine the best aperture. This can be useful at the very end of the day when light is rapidly diminishing, but in the middle of a sunny day shutter priority could be frustrating as you do not get to choose your aperture and therefore your background is more likely to be distracting.
• Check your histogram (mine is always up live so I see if before I take the photograph and can adjust accordingly. ETTR (expose to the right) but avoid “blinkies” (those highlights which are overexposed and have no detail)

TIP: Try to get your camera sensor parallel with the plane of the butterfly, this increases your depth of field immensely.

Depth of Field (DOF) is controlled by the following:

• Focal Plane — when your camera back is at an angle and you focus at a certain point, the plane of focus will be at the same parallel angle as the rear of your camera.
• Camera-Subject Distance— the closer you are to your subject, the less DOF you have.

Magnification. For you techies “The subject magnification has more impact on the DoF than the aperture. The DoF varies with the square of the magnification, and proportionally with the aperture”

• Focal Length — a wide angle lens gives you a lot of DOF; a telephoto lens gives you very little DOF.
• Aperture — a wide aperture gives you very little DOF; a small aperture gives you very deep DOF.

TIP: Explore Wabi Sabi: Finding Beauty in the imperfections. As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged. Wabi-Sabi is a concept from the Japanese concept of beauty and aesthetics. It is a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay. One of the benefits of embracing Wabi Sabi lies is that you can see the world not with just logic but through the heart. Wabi Sabi is a response to beauty which reflects the true nature of things as they are. The forest does not care what your hair looks like. The mountains do not move for your promotion. The rivers keep running, regardless of your social media following, your salary or your popularity. The flowers keep blooming, whether or not you make mistakes. Nature just is, and welcomes you, just as you are.

“Should we look at the Spring blossoms only in full flower, or the moon only when the sky is cloudless and clear? Beauty is not only evident in the joyous, the perfect, or the obvious.”

I love these aged, worn and weathered butterflies the same way I love the laugh lines and worry lines in human faces. For the Tawny owl butterfly and the blue morpho butterfly they mainly reveal their stunning inner blue beauty when they are worn and haggard at the end of their lives.

TIP: Try Flash!

• Flash enables you to use higher shutter speeds and freeze action (butterflies moving or wind blowing the flower the butterfly is on.
• I tend to use fill flash, that is some pop to light my subject but not settings that create dark backgrounds. I prefer green or colorful backgrounds.
• Flash can also be used to make your subject pop against a black background. What I do is turn the flash off and use settings to get a black frame and then I turn the flash on (I use manual or Manual FP to illuminate your subject. For you techies, this is possible because “Flash falloff is a product of the inverse square law, which states that a “specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity”. This law explains many phenomena but it’s particularly helpful for photographers in explaining why we get dark or black backgrounds when our subject is set apart from its background.” www.picturecorrect.com/photography-lighting-the-inverse-square-law
• When we use flash, we primarily use the Olympus FL-700WR most of the time with the AKdiffuser.com attached. We also have the Olympus STF-8 Twin MACRO FLASH. Both are weather-sealed (dustproof, splashproof and freezeproof) and both sync with the Olympus and OM SYSTEM camera bodies for easy focus stacking.

TIP: Try focus bracketing or focus stacking.

I prefer in-camera focus stacking because:

• I can see the results on the back of my camera immediately and I know if I “got it”.
• I can create a photograph with a non-distracting f3.5 or f5 background appearance while my subject looks like it was taken at f11 or f18 (or higher as often focus stacked image have more depth of field than an single image can achieve).
• I do not typically need more than 15 so I focus bracket less than 2% of the time.
• I prefer in-camera focus stacking unless I am at very high magnification and want an entire insect or subject sharp front to back.

• Get to know your subject and its pollen and host plants. A sure fire way to catch some butterflies in action is to watch flowers that they are fond of (this will require some pre-planning and research on your part).This is helpful in many ways, it can also get you to the right plants, especially if you are visiting early in the morning as this knowledge allows you to check those plants out first.
• Butterflies and moths develop through a process called metamorphosis (Greek for transformation or change in shape). Eggs are laid on plants, the caterpillar eats and eats (remember the “The Hungry Caterpillar” book”?). some eggs are so small they are the size of a pinhead. The caterpillar eats and eats and grows more than 100 times its size, molting numerous times during the process. The Caterpillar then stops eating and forms a “J” and becomes pupa (chrysalis) where a lot of change is taking place. The adult butterfly emerges and while the caterpillar’s job was to eat, the butterflies job is to reproduce. Most adults only live a few weeks (although some migrate and some hibernate).
• Plant some plants, embrace the weeds, and skip the pesticides. Even a couple of pots of fennel and phlox at your doorstep will be quite fruitful photographically. There’s an old proverb that says: “Don’t chase the butterfly, mend your garden and let the butterfly come”. If you have a yard, put a sign up and participate in “No mow May” which helps our pollinators immensely during the early Spring months. If you don’t have a yard, urge your town, community, homeowner’s association, etc. to support “No mow May” and to leave tracts of uncut areas, however small, as they help immensely. Since 1976 we have lost 80% of our butterflies.

Top middle: Monarch caterpillar on milkweed

Top right: Milkweed going to seed

Bottom left: Queen Anne’s lace, of the many host plants for the swallowtail butterfly

Bottom middle: swallowtail caterpillar on fennel

Bottom right: swallowtail caterpillar, closeup

Visit your local parks, especially early in the morning when the air is chillier and there might be dew on the wings. Visits butterfly conservation centers and encounters too. Butterflies are cold-blooded and need the light from the sun to warm the muscles they use to fly. But you can photograph on overcast days too. I do suggest avoiding windy days as those can be very challenging conditions for sharp images. Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather while moths (many active at night so they cannot use the sun, vibrate or shiver to activate their muscles to generate body heat. Many also have "heat insulating hairs" to help keep them warm.

Be respectful and have fun. Do not stress any wildlife that you photograph in any way just to get a photo, it’s not worth it. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar story is about hope. You, like the little caterpillar, will grow up, unfold your wings, and fly off into the future.” — Eric Carle. Becoming a better photographer is easy, just keep taking photographs, taking classes, going on photo workshops. Will you ever be “the best” who knows? But keep photographing and learning and assessing and you will be better next year than you are now. You can always get better. “What if the change you are avoiding is the one that gives you wings?” “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” — Maya Angelou

People often ask me why or how we have so many insects and critters in our yard. We do not use pesticides on our lawn, we participate in “No Mow May”, we plant Flowers, Herbs, annuals, & perennials , and our yard is certified by the [National Wildlife Federation](https://www.nwf.org/CertifiedWildlifeHabitat)

There are 33 common and 120 total species of butterflies in Connecticut. There are also over 400 species of moths including some pretty moths, like the Lunar moth, the Promethea Moth, and the Sphinx moth which resembles a hummingbird in Connecticut. Moths tend to be duller in color, stockier and “furrier” land and rest with their wings open over their abdomen versus the more colorful and smoother and leaner butterflies whose are typically closed when they land.

“Creating a wildlife habitat garden to attract birds, butterflies, and other neighborhood wildlife is fun, rewarding, and makes a big difference. It’s easier than you might think. Here is what your wildlife garden should include:

1. Food: Native plants provide food eaten by a variety of wildlife. Feeders can supplement natural food sources.
2. Water: All animals need water to survive, and some need it for bathing or breeding as well.
3. Cover: Wildlife need places to take shelter from bad weather and places to hide from predators or hunt for prey.
4. Places to Raise Young: Wildlife need resources to reproduce, and to protect and nourish their young.
5. Sustainable Practices: Maintain your yard or garden in natural ways to ensure soil, air, and water stay healthy and clean.

My parting thoughts… I love pareidolia, so I was delighted to see these swallowtail butterflies making heart shaped shadows on the ground as they fluttered because I enjoy finding pareidolia (random faces, shapes and patterns). EM1mark iii Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO Lens 1/5000 F4 ISO 800

Be patient. with the Butterfly. Photography is about the journey; you might not get a high keeper rate when you start, but that’s OK, you will get better with more practice. “You do not just wake up and become the butterfly. Growth is a process.” — Rupi Kaur “Metamorphosis has always been the greatest symbol of change for artists. Imagine that you could be a caterpillar one moment and a butterfly the next.” — Louie Schwartzberg

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• M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R
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