Marbled White Butterfly

Earlier in the summer I paid a brief visit to Ryton Woods in Warwickshire with the hope of photographing Marbled White butterflies. These striking butterflies do not occur in many places in the Midlands and the only time I have previously photographed them was in Kent, where they are far more numerous. I intentionally chose a cool morning to increase my chances of finding an approachable butterfly and my luck was in. I soon found a single individual perched with its wings closed next to a path. I approached very cautiously, not knowing whether it would take flight as I moved closer, but luckily it sat motionless. I therefore got to work and attached my plamp to the stem on which it was perched and moved my tripod into place.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO VIEW  LARGER VERSIONS

Canon 7D with Sigma 150mm lens, f7.1, 1/250, ISO 400

After a while the sun started to break through and the butterfly began to open its wings to warm them. Before long it decided to flutter a little further down the path before settling again. Fortunately, the sun kept going in which prevented the butterfly from warming up too much. As a result, whenever it settled it was still quite approachable but the breaks in the cloud at least allowed me to photograph the butterfly with its wings open.

Canon 7D with Sigma 150mm lens, f13, 1/200, ISO 200

Canon 7D with Sigma 150mm lens, f7.1, 1/400, ISO 200

Finally, I always carry my fisheye lens with me as I love to take 'wideangle macro' type shots showing an insect's environment. Such shots are very difficult to take (the lens was almost touching the butterfly!) but can be quite effective.

All in all, I was pleased with these images. I was at the site for less than 2 hours but managed to get the images I wanted. If only that happened more often....