Wings of Fancy Brookside Gardens

One of my favorite places to go is in Brookside Gardens. There you will find a live butterfly & caterpillar exhibit, which will be open from May 4 - September 22, 2013. The hours of operation are 10am - 4 pm daily.If you are planning to visit the address is Brookside Gardens South Conservatory 1500 Glenallan Avenue, Weaton, MD 20902 Adults $6 children $4 ages 3-12

 Since no tripods are allowed shoot manual make a test photo and make adjustment as needed.

 ISO 200 - f 7.2 - 60sec.

 ISO 200 - f 9 - 60sec.

 ISO 200 - f 9 - 125sec. flash

Butterflies at Brookside Gardens

My wife told me to go and take some pictures of butterflies yesterday, she would have gone with me but had something else to do. Brookside Gardens is one of my favorite places to go and pratice the art of photography because I love butterflies. If you are going to take a picture of a butterfly the problems that you have to get around are first you have to find them. They are moving targets so if you use a high shutter speed to try and freeze the wings as they are moving this generally cuts down the depth of field so part of the wing may not be in focus (if you time it right take the shoot as the wing are flat and from a overhead angle all of the wing will be in the same focal plane and in focus). If you try high f-stop to gain dept of field generally this give you a slow shutterspeed and if the wings are moving you get blur. The answer for me has been to raise and lower the ISO to gain an advantage of each shot as needed. I have included the camera settings and hopefully this will help you...Gary

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Nikon 50 mm 1.18G / ISO 400 / f-5.0 / 1/100sec.
This is a clear wing butterfly indigenous to Costa Rica - the scales on the wings are transparent...very rare

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Nikon 50 mm 1.18G / ISO 320 / f 5.0 / 1/125sec.

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Nikon 50 mm 1.18G / ISO 320 / f 5.0 / 1/125sec.

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Nikon 50 mm 1.18G / ISO 320 / f 5.0 / 1/125sec.

  Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Nikon 50 mm 1.18G / ISO 320 / f 3.5 / 1/125sec.

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Tamron18-270mm / ISO 1250 / f 14 / 1/1250sec.

 Camera Nikon D-300 Lens Tamron18-270mm / ISO200 / f 13 / 1/400 sec.
The last two pictures were taken outside in a garden, all others were inside the butterfly house...Gary

Atlas Moth

This moth was photographed at Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring Maryland. They can be found anywhere from India to China, Malaysia and the Philippines and can grow up to 11 inches. The common name is the Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas).

Camera Nikon D-300/Lens Tamron 18mm-270mm/1/60 sec. flash/Iso 500/F 9.0

Butterflies at Brookside Gardens

Well I finally got to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring, Maryland where during the sping and summer you can enter the Flight of Fancy butterfly exibit (cost 6 dollars). Shooting butterflies presents some unique problems. They are constantly moving and in order to get high depth of field you need a large f-stop but that might cause a slow shutter speed which will create blur if the butterfly is flapping it's wings. I have found that the answer is to constantly adjust iso (very low to 500) manual or apperature priorty try to stay above f-9. Sometime I have used a flash but the butterflies react to it sometimes. The use of a tripod would be great except it's not allowed in some live butterfly exibits, and in the field sneeking up on a butterfly is hard enough with just your camera in your hand and much harded with a tripod. A monopod never helped me. These pictures were taken with a Nikon D-300 I switched between the tameron 18-270mm lens and a 50mm G nikor lens with close-up filter...Gary

Brookside Fall

Overcast day, which is one of my favorites. I spent a wonderful afternoon there, just enjoying the color.

Last of the Summer Roses

Brookside Gardens watching the last of the Roses, Nikon D90, with 85mm F 3/5 G macro Lens. ISO 200 250 shutter F13. These are Mardi Gras roses. They were beautiful . Valerie

Butterfly of the Day

This butterfly is called a Malachite or better yet Siproeta stelenes. It can be found anywhere from Florida to South America. I got this picture at Brookside Gardens butterfly house in Maryland. Some of you will think that I altered the color saturation in making this picture.The only thing I can tell you is that if your blessed enough to show up at the right time when the light is perfect and the subject is in the right position and you have the right lens on at the right time this is what you might get....Gary

Camera Nikon D-300 / Lens Nikon 85mm Macro F3.5G / Aperture F 5.6 / 

Shutter 1-125s / Iso 200