Mike Blacknell

Meadow Brown Butterfly

This beauty was photographed early morning while still on its nighttime roost of Devil’s-bit Scabious dappled with dew. ...
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This beauty was photographed early morning while still on its nighttime roost of Devil’s-bit Scabious dappled with dew.
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NIKON D5100

settings

Aperture 28/5 ISO 400 Shutter 1/50 Focal Length 60/1

upload_date

Sep, 2023

Views

237

Likes

Awards

Top Pick 2023

Absolute Masterpiece

Peer Award

Top Ranks

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 2

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken at St Catherine’s Hill Nature Reserve a SSSI site in Hampshire Great Britain

Time

All my macro photography of insects are taken early morning whilst they are still in a state of torpor from the chill of the night

Lighting

As insects are cold blooded they are mostly inactive early morning allowing more time to set up shots and fine tune your composition

Equipment

My camera is a Nikon D5100 camera and a Nikon Nikkor 60mm f2.8 macro lens . Tripod, shutter release cable, lastolite diffuser .

Inspiration

My genre of photography is macro natural history, and St Catherine’s Hill being a SSSI site is a haven for butterflies and wild orchids.

Editing

I try as much as possible to get things right in camera so there’s not much to do in post production but sometimes a bit of cloning and limited cropping is employed.

In my camera bag

I like to travel light so it’s : camera , macro lens , Nikon 18-105 lens , shutter release cable , blower brush , lastolite reflector, tripod, water bottle,

Feedback

Early or late evening is the best time to get insect macros as they are less active and you can set up your shot using a tripod and employ Live view to manually focus with precision. Always check your background it’s as important as your subject to get right. Also try and choose a day that’s not windy with variable cloud cover.

See more amazing photos, follow Mike Blacknell

Mike Blacknell

Mike Blacknell

Meadow Brown Butterfly

This beauty was photographed early morning while still on its nighttime roost of Devil’s-bit Scabious dappled with dew. ... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Mike Blacknell

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This beauty was photographed early morning while still on its nighttime roost of Devil’s-bit Scabious dappled with dew. ...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.