Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
______________________________________________________________________Butterflies
50 – Cleopatras
CLEOPATRA BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA
BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA
BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA
BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
CLEOPATRA BUTTERFLY Gonepteryx cleopatra (m)
- The male Cleopatra Butterfly Gonepteryx
cleopatra must be one of the most beautiful of European
butterflies with its bright sulphur-yellow wings and rich orange flashes
on the upper-sides but there is a problem when trying to photograph them
as they always settle with their wings closed so that the orange cannot be
seen. If flash illumination is used then significant under-exposure would
be required to prevent the butterflies from appearing very washed-out. One
method of showing the colour to good effect is to photograph or film these
butterflies backlit by natural light, but the photographer was also very
keen to try to portray them with their wings fully opened during a visit
to the Ardèche region of Southern France where
this butterfly was one of the commonest species on the wing (first four
photographs), and again several years later in the Dordogne, where only
solitary Cleopatras were seen. Having observed their behaviour at some
length it became apparent that there were two possible options for
obtaining open-winged images of males and three for females. As the
butterflies feed on Lavender Lavandula sp. they would climb up
the inflorescences using their wings to assist them before moving on to
the next stalk so if timed correctly sometimes the upper-wings would be
caught mid-flap. Easy enough in theory but once the presence of an often
quite stiff breeze was taken into account rather less so! The other option
was to try to take them in flight, so therefore shortly after take-off and
hopefully flying in the same plane as manual focussing was needed to
minimise the issues associated with auto-focus picking up a background object
instead. This proved to be a genuine problem when filming them feeding on
the multi-stalked Lavender plants, but the bright sunlight made it
impossible to see the images on the preview screen required to use
manual-focussing for the first of these sessions. On the second occasion,
there was a high contrast between light and dark backgrounds as the
butterflies moved, necessitating guesswork (and rapid alterations to the
camera settings) when it came to compensation so that the butterflies
would be exposed correctly. Each of the photographs shown above required
good fortune as it is entirely impossible to predict the position of the
wings, or indeed if the butterfly will be in focus at all but one of the
wonderful aspects of digital photography is the ability to take very large
numbers of photographs when compared to transparency films from the
pre-digital age and then delete them, so what you see here are the
successes. Much smaller in numbers than the failures but very a very
worthwhile investment in time given the quality of the results. Modern camera
technology with large sensors has facilitated the use of higher ISO to
maximise depth of field, and faster shutter-speed settings to freeze
movement. Manual focussing was required to capture these butterflies in flight
(and more importantly) in sharp focus!
·
David’s films of Cleopatra Butterflies may be
seen at: https://youtu.be/2TdyJq6bkYA - compiled from those clips for which
the autofocussing did work properly, and at: https://youtu.be/JwUddHg7g3A including slow-motion video captured
on a mobile ‘phone.
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