Glass butterfly in the sunshine

A macro shot tonight - this is one of those little glass butterflies that you put around the base of plants as decoration and/or protection from frost etc. This is one of several scattered around the base of my blueberry bush - they shine beautifully in the sunshine.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/1000s, 90mm, hand held.

Red admiral butterfly on pink Sedum flowers (3)

Here's another one from the series I took about a year ago in my garden. I chose this one out of many others because I really like the underside of butterfly wings. This picture showcases the colours in both sides of the wings - the fact that the head is out of focus also helps to draw your eye to the wings.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/1000s, 90mm, hand held.

Butterfly perched on a dandelion flower

I took this a year ago at Hardcastle Crags, when I first got my macro lens. The only down side to the original image was how distracting the woodland floor was around the butterfly, although I really liked the lines and context it provided. Desaturating the background solved this problem.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1000s, 90mm, hand held.

Red admiral butterfly with its wings folded up

I took this one in my garden late last summer. I think the underside of the red admiral's wings is just as pretty as the top - the colours are really rich and the patterns less well defined.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/640s, 90mm, hand held.

Kizzy watching a butterfly

This is my cockerpoo, Kizzy, 'helping' me with my macro photography last summer! I'd sit quietly and patiently waiting for the butterfly to land, then Kizzy would decide to go in for a closer look. Sometimes she'd frighten it away, but every now and then I got a cute shot like this (and when I got really lucky, it'd be in focus!).

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/9, 1/400s, 90mm, hand held

Red admiral butterfly on pink Sedum flowers (2)

Here's another one of the red admiral butterfly in my garden a few weeks ago. Happy to have got its 'face' in focus and I like being able to see the green Sedum leaves in the background.

I cropped the image to position the butterfly on the thirds and reduced exposure.

Butterfly on pink flowers

I took this in my garden last week. With a shallow depth of field and manual focus it's really difficult to get the focus right - on this one I'm pleased to have got a clear shot of the butterfly's head. I've made 2 crops - one in black and white, which highlights the head and antennae and the detail in the flowers; one very close crop to highlight the colours and the detail of the head and wing.