Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Catching butterflies
I've always admired people who can photograph butterflies and wonder what the secret is. Butterflies don't often stay still and no matter what I try I rarely get a good shot of one.
Not far from the bird park in Kuala Lumpur is the Butterfly Park. The setup is similar. The whole area is covered in mesh and the butterflies fly free. It costs RM15 for a person to get in and RM1 for a still camera. Video cameras are a little extra. I decided to spend a few hours there and see what I could do.
Spending time in the park is quite pleasant because the environment they have created for the butterflies is a very attractive one for humans too. It's also environmentally friendly. They have to control pests by biological methods so they don't kill the butterflies.
And how did I go with the photos? At first there were quite a few blurred ones. I reminded myself that I had all day if I wanted and there were thousands of butterflies. So I took my time, tried a few different settings and soon I was taking photos like this one.
While I'm a long way from being an expert, I think I have discovered the secret: patience and a plentiful supply of butterflies. A good camera also helps. If you'd like to see more of my butterfly photos, I'll be uploading them to my flickr page in due course. Hang in there; I've been taking a lot of photos lately.
If you are in KL and decide to go to the Butterfly Park you'll get better shots, of the stationary butterflies at least, with a tripod but don't bother, they won't let you bring it in. I don't know why. I forgot to pack mine so it wasn't a problem.
PS: to see a larger version of these pics, click on them.
Not far from the bird park in Kuala Lumpur is the Butterfly Park. The setup is similar. The whole area is covered in mesh and the butterflies fly free. It costs RM15 for a person to get in and RM1 for a still camera. Video cameras are a little extra. I decided to spend a few hours there and see what I could do.
Spending time in the park is quite pleasant because the environment they have created for the butterflies is a very attractive one for humans too. It's also environmentally friendly. They have to control pests by biological methods so they don't kill the butterflies.
And how did I go with the photos? At first there were quite a few blurred ones. I reminded myself that I had all day if I wanted and there were thousands of butterflies. So I took my time, tried a few different settings and soon I was taking photos like this one.
While I'm a long way from being an expert, I think I have discovered the secret: patience and a plentiful supply of butterflies. A good camera also helps. If you'd like to see more of my butterfly photos, I'll be uploading them to my flickr page in due course. Hang in there; I've been taking a lot of photos lately.
If you are in KL and decide to go to the Butterfly Park you'll get better shots, of the stationary butterflies at least, with a tripod but don't bother, they won't let you bring it in. I don't know why. I forgot to pack mine so it wasn't a problem.
PS: to see a larger version of these pics, click on them.
Labels: Asia, butterfly, camera, flickr, fz20, KL, Kuala Lumpur, Lumix, Malaysia, Panasonic, photography
