Yellow and Blue

I have been trying for some time to get a really nice shot of a Brimstone Butterfly – this is almost, but not quite it.  However, it is my best yet, and, had it been sharp for the entire length of the butterfly’s wings I could have called and end to my quest.  But, I am still quite pleased with it, if only for the colours, the yellow of the butterfly, the blue of the flower and the green of the grass.

If this was entered in a competition, I know that the judge would potentially have criticised the less than pristine state of the butterfly, and the distraction of the grass under the butterfly and the brown stripe at the side.  Also, perhaps the butterfly doesn’t stand out enough and I should have tried a different one.  (I did try, but the orange tips were having none of it).

So, why is this picture with all of its attendant faults making an appearance on my blog (apart from the fact that there is an insect in it)?  The main reason is that I went out with the intention of a) taking some architecture shots (which will appear on a later post) and b) some nice pictures of bluebells – after all, I do have a club competition coming up next week.  The architecture shots were OK, but not startling, and the bluebell shots were frankly disappointing – although I have a cunning plan which involves me, a tripod and Badby Woods (on a sunny day).  So, getting my best shot of a brimstone, on a bluebell, that is compositionally OK, made me feel as though my visit to Everdon Stubbs was not completely wasted.  Sometimes you do get an unexpected lucky break.

In the traditional manner, the shot was taken using my EOS 400d, handheld with 100mm Canon macro lens, settings were ISO200, 1/160 secs, f /9.0.

Postscript – I did enter this in a print competition at the club, and it scored 18/20.  There was no request to take anything out, thankfully we had a judge that was not Photoshop crazy.