An early start to photograph marbled white butterflies
Marbled white feeding on scabious flower. 1/400 sec; f/6.3; ISO 200; fill-flash
The weather forecast for the following day looked promising and, with some trepidation, I set my alarm for a 3:15am wake-up. All my camera gear was packed and in the hallway; car’s sat nav programmed; location scouted virtually on Google earth; clothes were laid out ready to ease into; flask was primed with coffee, ready to fill with boiling water before heading off. What could go wrong?
Out the house and en-route by 3:30, arriving at my destination just after 4:00 - as excited as one can be at that time in the morning. I parked and got out the car, grabbing my gear and headed off along the footpath with just enough pre-dawn light to see where I was heading, reassured that I could relate to what I encountered with my vision of the site.
Gear
In terms of gear, it’s always a balance between travelling light and making sure I don’t have that sinking ‘oh, bugger, I wish I’d brought… with me’ feeling.
I favour a 100mm macro lens, coupled with both full frame and crop sensor DSLRs. When butterflies are roosting it’s easy to get in close, so I use the full frame one. Better high ISO performance comes in handy when light levels are low, too. I switch to the crop body when they are on the wing, with the extra ‘reach’ enabling me to shoot without having to get so close.
A solid tripod is a must and my 15-year-old Gitzo has never let me down. The first thing I did when I got it was to take out the centre column to enable me to get down to grass level. A ball head with an arca swiss fitting allows me to quickly switch between landscape and portrait orientations via the L-bracket that is permanently fixed to my camera.
A flash is a must, together with a diffuser to ensure soft light. I like my images to look as if no flash had been used at all, so a modicum of soft fill-flash is essential. The majority of photos in this post are taken with my fill-flash technique. Using too much flash power will make the backgrounds too dark, giving an unnatural look. Setting the flash to HSS (High-speed Synch) is important so that the synch speed of the camera is not exceeded.
I also carry a 1m diameter reflector/diffuser, which is another great way of pushing extra light onto subjects.
Technique
The methods employed for photographing roosting and active butterflies are very different:
Early on, when the sun is yet to hit the ground, the butterflies are too cold to fly, so they make captive subjects for photographing their underwings. Working in manual metering mode, I’ll frame up in live view and choose an appropriate aperture and shutter speed to give me a -0.33 or - 0.66 exposure. If it’s breezy, I may have to wind up the ISO; 100 or 200 are my settings of choice but I will go up to 800, as it’s critical to get sharp images, even if there’s a little noise to contend with later when processing. I’ll take a few test shots, starting with a flash exposure compensation of -0.33, adjusting any of the above to make sure I’m happy with the exposure. I’ll then fine tune my composition, making sure that I’m perpendicular to the wing surface, before zooming in with live view on the butterfly’s head to manually focus. I don’t use a cable release, but rely on the 2-second timer mode. Shooting directly from live view mode means I don’t need to employ mirror lockup. I’ll then review a few images on the rear LCD, making any fine adjustments to composition, exposure or focusing as needed.
Once the butterflies have a bit of sun on them it’s only a few minutes until they are feeding and/or on the wing. This is when I switch to my (1.6) crop sensor body, still using the diffused flash. Still in manual exposure mode, but now using servo/continuous focusing. I’ve long since been a strong advocate of back-button focusing, having two buttons programmed: one to give a narrow zone of focus points and another for single-point focusing, the latter for when the butterfly is relatively static and I can focus with confidence.
As well as ensuring that the butterfly is rendered to look as natural as possible, it’s critical also not to forget about the backgrounds. Clean, diffuse and uniform backgrounds really help to take a good image to the next level.
Advantages of getting up early
It’s always great to be out and about whilst everyone else is tucked up in bed. There’s something about being immersed in nature before the heat of the day that really lifts my mood. It also means there may be more photographic opportunities.
It’s pretty rare to capture mating butterflies, but I did get lucky on this occasion. due to the orientation of the pair, it was not going to be possible to get them both in focus, so I opted for a shallow DOF, at least making sure that the head of the male was in focus. I could have stopped down but the background would have become too busy. Focus stacking such a complex arrangement would have been extremely difficult, so I opted for a more pictorial shot.
Mating pair. 1/200 sec; f/3.5; ISO 250
My next encounter was this fine specimen, roosting on a daisy. The sun has not risen yet, so I’m working with very little light. The fill flash helps to lift the highlights, whilst still giving a natural appearance.
Roosting on daisy. 1/4 sec; f/8; ISO 100; fill flash
I could now see the shadow of the woodland creeping across the meadow, so I knew that the sun would be on the butterflies within about 15 mins. The next two images are of the same composition: one taken whilst in full shade and the next with half of the sun above the horizon, directly behind the butterfly. Notice how the sun has helped to provide some rim lighting and emphasises the transparent nature of the wings and gives a far warmer tone. Exposures, naturally, are quite different, too.
On scabious in shade. 1/6 sec; f/10; ISO 100; fill flash
Back-lit on scabious. 1/50 sec; f/8 ISO 200; fill flash
The meadow had a good number of scabious plants in it, a number of which were quite tall. Luckily the gentle breeze that I encountered first thing had now abated, making for easier photography. Occasionally, one gets lucky to see more than one butterfly on a flower head. Whilst not mating, this pair made for an interesting composition.
Male and female on scabious; 1/320th; f/8; ISO 200; fill flash
When creeping up on a butterfly, one never knows whether it will stay or fly away. As a rule, if they sense one’s shadow across them, they will flit away. Eventually, one will sit and pose for you.
I was able to get really close (~30cm) to this beautifully marked individual.
Top-side close-up; 1/250th; f/9; ISO 200; fill flash
By 6am, the whole meadow was bathed in warm direct light, and the butterflies were incredibly active, feeding and flitting around in search of nectar from the flower heads. I was particularly pleased with this photo of two on the same bloom.
‘BOGOF’; 1/250th; f/9; ISO 200; fill flash
Although now much more active, letting them settle and start feeding for a few seconds before approaching them is the best approach. If you leave it too long, however, one risks them moving onto the next flower. With the taller flowers, it was easier to maintain clean backgrounds and, for the next image, I was able to open up to f/5.6 to blur it out even more.
Sitting up perfectly; 1/640th; f/5.6; ISO 200; fill flash
My usual photographic methods are to capture the full underwing when roosting, or the inner wing when active. The next two images are something a little different.
Head on; 1/400th; f/6/3; ISO 200; fill flash
From below; 1/400th; f/6.3; ISO 200; fill flash
By now, I’d been at the site for three hours and felt I had captured a good set of images. By way of showing how active these butterflies become, here’s a short video. Whilst it’s always great to have a successful trip, for me it’s also about the immersion in nature and observing behaviour and getting to know a species better. Despite the drone from the nearby motorway, you can also hear: skylark; chaffinch; cricket; jackdaw; wren; magpie; rook. I also heard whitethroat, yellowhammer, raven and green woodpecker whilst there.
As perfect a morning as I could have wished for, followed by a drive home to catch up on missed sleep.