A few days ago I spent a couple of peaceful hours at the new Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. Butterflies are often hard to photograph for the obvious reasons. They move quickly, they blend in with flowers and foliage, they're small and have tiny patterns, etc. Below I've posted some of my favorite shots from the day along with some tips about taking better photos of these beautiful creatures.
1. First and foremost, be patient and plan to spend a lot of time just observing and waiting.
2. Plan on taking hundreds, if not thousands of photos to get a few that you like and are in focus.
3. Use any lens you have, however, for the photos below, I used a telephoto lens.
4. Look for a monochromatic background that coordinates and/or contrasts with the colors in the butterfly to make an interesting composition.
10. Look for unique compositions that will be eye catching and interesting.
My goal was to make the butterfly in each of the above photos the focal point and subject of the images. Below is an example of a photo that is alright but did not meet my goal This is more of an environmental nature shot where the scene is as important as the butterfly. It is not as impactful if the subject is the butterfly.
