Photography Hacks :Tips on Photographing a Butterfly (with video)

Have you ever had a "high five moment" with a butterfly?
I did, yesterday.

I was having a coffee break in the garden yesterday and the peacock butterflies were having a party on the Buddleja again. I saw an opportunity to show you that it's actually possible to get very close to a butterfly and take their pictures with whatever camera you have as long as the shutter is off.

As I've written it here before, butterflies are in their most vulnerable when feeding . Every insect is ...be it a bee, a wasp, a hover fly, a dragonfly - any flying insect would be the easiest to photograph when they are feeding .

While waiting for my coffee to cool down a bit, I took my phone and approach the party squeaky quiet. This one was just nipping on one of the lowest among the Buddleja flowers and is facing the sun which is one thing you need to remember when taking pictures of any subject outdoors. The sun should be directly hitting your subject to be able to capture the details vividly. Never take pictures outdoor with your camera facing the sun, a sun streak would appear on your picture if you do that.

Slowly, I brushed my middle and index finger on the Buddleja. She just went on nipping. Yes, it's a female - you could tell from the plump lower body and a very young one, too. Male butterflies have thinner lower bodies.

Here are photos I took consecutively while that lil' gal just kept nipping.

Obviously, she saw me and you could see - she just stared right back at me.

And went back on nipping.

I went on to another one and did the same, I just calmly and slowly reached for the other end where she is not nipping on.

Slowly, I pushed my fingers to get as close to her and had to stop because I felt her wings already brushing my palms. Butterflies flap their wings open every now and then while nipping to keep them sun charged enough ready to take a flight in case a bird swoops down unto them. Yes, their wings run on solar power. Brushing them on my palm may make them loose the powder on their wings that keep those from forming holes and losing too much powder may give them a hard time flying later.

I moved on to another Buddleja and held the whole rows of flowers between my palm allowing some of the flowers to stick out through the gap between my index finger and thumb for a bait. A butterfly landed ... but instead of nipping on the flowersm she just sat on my hand and groomed her proboscis.

She then flew away to another flower. What a tease.
I've decided to take another flower and put it between my fingers, allowing rows of them to rest on my palm. One of them peacock butterflies took the bait and started nipping. I stood there pretty mesmerized and would just want to enjoy that moment .. however, knowing that once she is done sticking her proboscis on each teeny tiny tube of a flower there was - which weren't much ... she'd take another flight and so I pressed the capture botton. Here she is.

Compulsively, she nipped in each tube and started resting her legs on my fingers. It tickled - for me it did but not everybody is as ticklish as I am so you'd probably enjoy it more. I bear, I want her to stay for a while and she did.

Later on I went around the Buddleja plant to look for a male that's when I found out that there are actually 16 of them. Fifteen peacock butterflies and one Comma butterfly or Polygonia interrogationis. I noticed that it was nipping on the side opposite to where the Peacock butterflies were nipping as if outcasted. I wonder if it's because it looks different.

I could only take this shot because it soon moved to a Buddleja flower I can no longer reach. It looked way different than the peacock butterflies.

Later that afternoon, I went back to the garden to make a video of how I do it. Here's that video. Don't forget to click the full screen icon at the lower right bottom to get to view the video very well. Enjoy!

I took the pictures with my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition.

There's another way to have these butterflies on your face, hands, clothes and take their pictures. It's to visit them in butterfly gardens. Two years ago, we went to Bendorf Sayn Schmetterlingsgarten where we saw several Asian butterflies.

Hub actually had him first then he flew on my blouse. This one's a male, his lower body is thinner than the ones up there.

You could also enjoy watching butterflies in your garden even if you don't have any Buddlejas or flowering plants that attract butterflies. In Bendorf Sayn Schmetterlingsgarten, they've set up bowls with slices of oranges and half a banana for them to enjoy. Just make sure you're going to feed them something organic. Anything sprayed on won't be attractive for them. They are out on a food hunt on sunny days around 12 noon to 7 pm. Just please watch over them while they are feeding .. birds could be nearby and remember they are at their most vulnerable when feeding.

Hub took my picture (which you could also bump into in my tripadvisor page) and I took the rest of these old pictures with SAMSUNG ES65, ES67 / VLUU ES65, ES67 / SAMSUNG SL50 camera.

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