This is another close-up of the swallowtail butterfly shown in yesterday’s blog post.
Astrid in her comment to that photo wrote that she never tried to take such a shot because most butterflies are very camera shy. When one gets too close to them (often this means closer than 2 meters), they fly away. She is right! I consider myself very lucky that I was able to take a handful of close-ups of this beautiful creature.
For these shots I used my Nikon D500 camera with the Nikon 105 mm macro lens plus an achromat macro lens. The shots were taken with a hand-held camera pressed sidewise at a sturdy bamboo stick which then functioned as a monopod. With this camera setup I must get very close to my photo models (about 30 centimeters). This is only possible, when I move in slow motion all the time.
No question, luck is part of the game. Occasionally I have meet specimens that tolerate my approaching macro lens more than others. No question, I am very thankful for those!