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Archive 2016 · Mountain Butterfly

  
 
John Koerner
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Mountain Butterfly


Nature is fun, but frustrating ;D

Found a "lifer" yesterday ... first time I had ever seen a Brown Elfin Butterfly (positively ID'd by Ken Davenport of BAMONA).

Unfortunately, this specimen was found during the harshest light possible, and it was quite windy.

Not proud of any of these images, per se, but I was delighted with the opportunity.

It was the best I could do dealing with the wind and trying not to get "that yellow cast" of mid-day photography.







I am going to go back to this location and see if I can find an un-damaged specimen this weekend.

These images were obtained with all-manual lenses, vintage lenses over 20 years old.

For complete Encounter Info (including a video of the terrain) click here.

(Landscape photos taken with a 30-year old, mint Nikon 15mm f/3.5 Ai-S I just had shipped to me from Japan )

Thanks for looking,

Jack



Jun 06, 2016 at 11:23 PM
LordV
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Mountain Butterfly


Lovely captures Jack - congrats on the find
Brian v.



Jun 07, 2016 at 12:39 AM
e6filmuser
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Mountain Butterfly


John Koerner wrote:
I am going to go back to this location and see if I can find an un-damaged specimen this weekend.

These images were obtained with all-manual lenses, vintage lenses over 20 years old.


Jack,

Nice work. I think a little more could be made of, certainly the third and fourth, with same significant cropping.

I admire your persistence. I sometimes struggle with the line between persistence and obsession!

I share your preference for lenses, especially for macro.

Harold



Jun 07, 2016 at 02:57 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Mountain Butterfly


LordV wrote:
Lovely captures Jack - congrats on the find
Brian v.


Thank you, it was a treat to see



Jun 07, 2016 at 07:48 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Mountain Butterfly


e6filmuser wrote:
Jack,
Nice work. I think a little more could be made of, certainly the third and fourth, with same significant cropping.


Thanks Harold.

By "more," do you mean more detail?

I guess I could crop them tighter, but then I would lose the environment.

Ultra-close shots have their place, but sometimes it's nice to see a little bit of the environment too.

Also, at full-size,



e6filmuser wrote:
I admire your persistence. I sometimes struggle with the line between persistence and obsession!


A person has to be obsessed in order to be persistent



e6filmuser wrote:
I share your preference for lenses, especially for macro.
Harold


There is a different feel to using an all-manual lens.

Using the manual focus ring of a light, plasticky, primarily AF lens is not satisfying ... however, using the well-dampened, manual focus ring (and, for that matter, aperture ring) ring of an old school, all-metal, truly quality lens is most satisfying indeed.

I actually only have 1 AF lens left.



Jun 07, 2016 at 08:02 AM
e6filmuser
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Mountain Butterfly


John Koerner wrote:
Thanks Harold.

By "more," do you mean more detail?

I guess I could crop them tighter, but then I would lose the environment.

Ultra-close shots have their place, but sometimes it's nice to see a little bit of the environment too.


It's more about removing elements of the image which distract the eye. The left-hand OOF inflorescence in the second image, and maybe a bit off the right side, to reposition the butterfly in the frame. In the third image, ditto but as much to remove the OOF, compact pale bud and stalk in the top left corner. To summarise, the left half of the second image (and abit off the right) and about the left third of the last image, plus some cloning out. It is not about detail but about composition. Neither suggestion would lose the environmental setting.

This is only my opinion.

Harold



Jun 07, 2016 at 08:50 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Mountain Butterfly


Thanks for the input.

Removing elements from the image, though, isn't composition. It's editing.

I agree that there are several things I could edit-out, but I prefer to leave my images natural. I also like seeing the OOF buds in the background.

There was a time where, if a butterfly had a missing piece of wing, I would "clone" his wing back together and make it "perfect."

Now, I happily allow my images to remain as-is, if I am representing the image as a "nature" shot.

Cheers,

Jack



Jun 07, 2016 at 09:07 AM
e6filmuser
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Mountain Butterfly


John Koerner wrote:
Now, I happily allow my images to be taken as-is.

Cheers,

Jack


Of course, but if you say:

"Not proud of any of these images, per se, but I was delighted with the opportunity."

Yes, it is editing but so, essentially, was the work of Ansel Adams, whose "compositions" are much admired.

Words, words, words! It's the image that matters.

Harold



Jun 07, 2016 at 09:21 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Mountain Butterfly


Of course, but if you say:

"Not proud of any of these images, per se, but I was delighted with the opportunity."


And that is exactly what I meant

I was delighted with the opportunity, but knew going into it that they were not perfect images.

I already know I didn't have a flush plane-of-focus on any of them, that the time of day was bad, as far as light goes, and that it was windy.

I know enough not to try to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear, lol

However, I *also* know it is possible to simply enjoy the opportunity to see something cool ... so I was still delighted with the find.




Yes, it is editing but so, essentially, was the work of Ansel Adams, whose "compositions" are much admired.


I was not trying to create a "work of art," but to share a find.

One has to have the sense to know the difference



Words, words, words! It's the image that matters.

Harold


So sayeth the man without a color-calibrated monitor ... and who didn't edit-out bug feces on a leaf in one of his own images

Harold, if I represent a piece as "art," you will know it.

The photo will be taken with a tripod, remote switch, and with perfect light.

As I said in the beginning, these photos were hand-held taken in the wind in mid-day.

It was just the first time I'd ever seen the species, so I thought I would share.

Jack



Jun 07, 2016 at 09:39 AM
e6filmuser
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Mountain Butterfly


Jack,

My point was about editing and composition not about any claims for a work of art.

If it was faeces, that was part of the environment. If it was bits of insect, that was evidence of (late in) the interaction. Most of my editing is of distracting highlights, such as off tiny drops of water, or of sensor dust.

Harold



Jun 07, 2016 at 10:01 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Mountain Butterfly


e6filmuser wrote:
Jack,
My point was about editing and composition not about any claims for a work of art.


And my point is why "give lessons" on a post where the poster admits right off the bat that he's not proud of the image, only sharing a cool find?

If I wrote a dissertation on "my technique" used to create an image ... and then proceeded to post a severely-flawed image, then go ahead and "teach me something."

However, when I already know the image isn't perfect, and say I took a hand-held shot in unfavorable conditions, have the sense not to go on about critiquing.



e6filmuser wrote:
If it was faeces, that was part of the environment. If it was bits of insect, that was evidence of (late in) the interaction. Most of my editing is of distracting highlights, such as off tiny drops of water, or of sensor dust.


Lol, so the guy who mentions Ansel Adams thinks an OOF background flower is "distracting," but finds a piece of feces "artistic" and part of the environment? Too funny.

I believe, if you're representing something as a nature shot, then you post the photo "as is" with minimal processing ... so, yes, leave the feces in too ... but if you are creating a work of art you can pretty much do what you want.

Honestly, to me, what is the most distracting about your images is the fact all the colors are wrong.

Jack



Jun 07, 2016 at 10:46 AM
e6filmuser
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Mountain Butterfly


John Koerner wrote:
finds a piece of feces "artistic"


Where did I say that? I have never claimed anything is artistic about any of my images,.

I don't 'claim' anything is part of the environment. It is de facto.

Harold



Jun 07, 2016 at 11:08 AM
John Koerner
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Mountain Butterfly


e6filmuser wrote:
Where did I say that? I have never claimed anything is artistic about any of my images,.


Why would you clone an OOF flower out of the background, then, but leave a piece of feces?

My point is, you can't use the "it's part of the environment," as an argument, because the flower is as much a part of the environment as the feces.

Therefore, it MUST be for "artistic reasons" that you suggested removing the flower, which again begs my question.

If we agree on preserving the environment, there is nothing to debate: they both stay.

If you mention deleting anything, then it has to be based on "artistic merit," which therefore begs the question as to why an OOF flower should be deleted rather than a turd?

Flare, chromatic aberrations, etc, are things to edit in a nature shot, but in a pure nature shot environment = environment and should be left in IMO.



e6filmuser wrote:
I don't 'claim' anything is part of the environment. It is de facto.
Harold


As are the flowers in my background, which brings us back to what I wrote above.



Jun 07, 2016 at 12:02 PM





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