Butterfly House
The Wide Angle Photo Club sponsored a group photo activity at the Panhandle Butterfly House in Navarre, FL. Established to educate the community about ecosystem environmental conservation, the Panhandle Butterfly House is operated by an all volunteer staff. The entry room contains a collection of mounted butterflies from all around the world donated by Gulf Breeze resident, Dr. Tom Grow.
From this room, visitors enter a vivarium, where butterflies in all stages of life can be found. Caterpillars and chrysalis stages can be seen in the nursery area. Mature butterflies of local species flutter throughout the room feeding on the nectar of their favorite flowers.
Photographing butterflies is a lot like hunting wild game, without the blood of course, but you need to be quick on the focus and on the shutter to capture them. Robert’s recipe included the following: camera with a 28-300 mm telephoto lens, set on ISO 320 or 800, Aperture priority set at f/11. The focal length varied with the distance from the butterflies. The shutter speed varied based on the lighting conditions.
Billie’s plan was to create some video clips as well as still images. She likes working with challenging conditions. Her recipe was to use the Lester A. Dine 105mm Nikon (macro – dental lens with dental directions on the lens) attached to the Canon EOS, Mark II. This connection was made possible with an adapter acquired from Calagaz Camera in Pensacola with the assistance of manager Rob Kepko. Video clips were created using live view, manual focusing on the viewing screen. Still images were created using either ISO 800 or 320, aperture priority, with lens settings varying from f/2.8 – 8.0.
Photo Credits to Robert and Billie Nicholson.