I have been a little quiet lately – spending a lot of my time on maintaining my Photocrowd portfolio. A few ranking cycles ago, I made it to a top 250 silver-ranked photographer there (yeahhhhh). And being as ambitious as I am, this is a status I would love to maintain. To do that, what better way is there to make not just technically good pictures but also such of interesting subjects and/or perspectives. As more typical for me, more often than not rather in an opportunistic way than everything scheduled and timed. Let’s see what shows up in front of my lens.
It’s summer, so not just travel and ice-cream time (more on that in a few days :)), but also time for butterflies and everything that hums and buzzes. One recent morning, I had a giant grasshopper in my flower box, doing its morning clean and posing on my sage. Lucky that I saw it, being super well hidden in the green. Within only a few minutes, I captured some pretty nice shots.
The butterfly safari was a little more effort. With two open photo contests (Butterflies and Multiple Insects in one picture), there was a nice motivation to keeping my eyes open for this kind of little critters. You won’t imagine how quick butterflies can move!! And there is a massive difference between species. Some – like the peacock butterfly or the swallowtail – are pretty content, chilling on a flower for a few minutes at a time. So, you have plenty of time to take photos from every angle. Other are super nervous little things. The moment you have them in a nice pose they already flutter off. The ‘Argynnis paphia’ and the ‘Polygonia c-album’ are two of those. Which makes me even happier that out of a staggering 250 or so shots I took, I caught some quite unique ones. With the right focus, the right pose and the right lighting. Looking at the below, aren’t you feeling watched? 🙂
