Butterflies In Close-Up by Alpha Whiskey Photography
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Butterflies In Close-Up

  • Jan 20, 2014
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Butterflies In Close-Up

Jena and I both went to see the butterfly exhibit in the glasshouse at RHS Wisley. A fantastic exhibit which we visited last year as well. However, whereas last year I used a DSLR and 18-200mm zoom, this year I used a dedicated macro lens. All of the photos below were taken hand-held with the Olympus 60mm F/2.8 on the EM-5 body. Macro shooting is not something I ordinarily do; my past efforts can been seen here. But I can fully appreciate why seasoned macro shooters value their tripods! At 1:1 magnification, even the slightest movement can take you out of the plane of focus. Well, there were really no places to set a tripod down in the glasshouse, especially amongst the swarms of visiting spectators. So I did have to stop my heart-rate and breathing momentarily to capture these shots. Even the amazing IS on the EM-5 couldn't guarantee blur-free shots at reasonable shutter speeds at these magnifications. I found that using the AEL focus lock once focus had been achieved helped in obtaining sharp shots. The Oly 60mm macro is a very sharp and light lens, and a nice addition to my mirrorless kit. In contrast to the Canon 100mm macro which Jena borrowed, I was able to get very close to my subjects, and manually focusing at 1:1 magnification on the EM-5 was quite easy. The butterfly exhibit is at RHS Wisley until March, so please make your own visit. Until then, enjoy my efforts below.

Jan 20, 2014
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Butterflies In Close-Up

This post has 24 photos Jan 20, 2014Comments (2)3856 views
Jena and I both went to see the butterfly exhibit in the glasshouse at RHS Wisley. A fantastic exhibit which we visited last year as well. However, whereas last year I used a DSLR and 18-200mm zoom, this year I used a dedicated macro lens. All of the photos below were taken hand-held with the Olympus 60mm F/2.8 on the EM-5 body. 

Macro shooting is not something I ordinarily do; my past efforts can been seen here. But I can fully appreciate why seasoned macro shooters value their tripods! At 1:1 magnification, even the slightest movement can take you out of the plane of focus. Well, there were really no places to set a tripod down in the glasshouse, especially amongst the swarms of visiting spectators. So I did have to stop my heart-rate and breathing momentarily to capture these shots. Even the amazing IS on the EM-5 couldn't guarantee blur-free shots at reasonable shutter speeds at these magnifications. I found that using the AEL focus lock once focus had been achieved helped in obtaining sharp shots. 

The Oly 60mm macro is a very sharp and light lens, and a nice addition to my mirrorless kit. In contrast to the Canon 100mm macro which Jena borrowed, I was able to get very close to my subjects, and manually focusing at 1:1 magnification on the EM-5 was quite easy. 

The butterfly exhibit is at RHS Wisley until March, so please make your own visit. Until then, enjoy my efforts below.
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Comments

Neil StewartApr 8, 2014 06:01 AM

Impressive, thanks for sharing.

MichaelAug 30, 2014 11:59 AM

Wow. I never thought a lens could get that close. Impressive.

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