Photographing Insects March 31, 2008

Last summer, in August 2007, I visited the Botanical Gardens in Montreal, where I managed to photograph some nice monarch butterflies outside in the gardens, with my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens with Image Stabilization, and with a 1.4 extender attached. This gave me the ability to zoom in on an insect without having to get too close and disturb the insect…

Inside the botanical gardens, there was a greenhouse that was set up with lots of free-flying butterflies, but hundreds of people would pass through every day, so these butterflies tended to be a bit worn out as you can see in the photo below. It was also harder to photograph them because of all the people around, and I couldn’t get back very far enough to get a small depth-of-field that would make the background out of focus (nice bokeh) and less distracting…

Either people were touching them a lot, or they were kept hyperactive by being fed a constant supply of sugared fruits in plates…

Here is another messed-up butterfly inside the greenhouse. Looks like it has been through a paper shredder…

The best butterflies were outside. And because I could stay farther away with my zoom telephoto lens, I could make sure I could choose to have a nice blurred background that was farther behind the butterfly. The background then became out of focus (nice bokeh) that would be less distracting…

‘Boheh’ is a Japanese word used by photographers that means ‘fuzzyness’. You can read about the definition of the word here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Another nice example of a perfect butterfly outdoors where the ‘bokeh’ is good…

I visited the Montreal Botanical Gardens late in the season when the butterfly exhibit inside was almost over. Perhaps this was another reason why the butterflies inside were in such bad shape. This summer, I will try to go earlier in the season, shortly after the butterfly exhibit begins.