Butterfly balancing act

[Randy Stout]

Taken a few days ago at our local arboretum.  I was struck both by his skill at balancing on this thin leaf while sipping nectar, and the balance of the elements in the frame.

D500  Sigma 180/f 3.5  1/400 sec  f/11 ISO 1250  R1C1 macro flash.  Somewhat supported by a small monopod stuck into a cup on my belt.  Tripods are not allowed.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Bjørn Rørslett]

This guy is all at ease with its gentle feeding manners ...

Very nice butterfly that one.

[Bill De Jager]

Very nicely done, Randy. As you stated, the elements are well balanced.  So are the colors.

[Mongo]

elegant butterfly and very well composed within the frame.

[elsid]

Excellent picture Randy. I love to photograph butterflies.

[Akira]

I always admire the butterfly shooters simply because they can align the camera parallel to the wings, Randy included.  Beautiful capture, needless to say!

[Peter Connan]

Stunning!

If I may ask, how does the Sigma 180 f3.5's AF work with the D500? On my older cameras, it seems very "nervous", seeming to jump around a lot.

[Randy Stout]

Stunning!

If I may ask, how does the Sigma 180 f3.5's AF work with the D500? On my older cameras, it seems very "nervous", seeming to jump around a lot.

Peter:  By their nature, most macro lenses are rather leisurely in regards to focusing speed.  I believe it is because of the very long focusing travel they have to allow very precise focusing.  The higher the grade of body, the faster it will focus, and although the D500 is better than the older bodies, it still is pretty deliberate.  By far the biggest way to speed it up is to  use the limiter switch so that it doesn't rack back and forth through its entire focusing range very time it loses focus.

I often will use autofocus ( with limiter on) to get me in the ballpark, if there is enough light, and then fine tune it with manual focus.

Cheers

Randy

[Peter Connan]

Thanks Randy

It's not the speed that bothers me as much as the nervousness my copy exhibits on the D7000. It never actually locks into focus. It attains focus, and then starts "hunting around", making small adjustments, and a large majority of photos are un-sharp as a result.

When shooting real macro, it is fine, as for that I focus manually, but at one time I had high hopes for this lens for shooting things like dragonflies in flight, but it just doesn't work for that. To be honest, it hasn't spent much time on the D750 yet...

[rosko]

Splendid shot !

This image accumulates all ingredients for success : perfect compo, colours (red and black always match), gracefulness of the subject (enhanced with its abdomen concealed by its wings), sharpness and bokeh.

This Sigma 180mm is definitely a fantastic tool !

The monopod you used is good alternative when tripods are not allowed, even if it will never replace a solid tripod.

[armando_m]

Great butterfly portrait

Here is my experience with a sigma 150 macro, sounds similar to what you describe for the 180,  I started using it with a D300, AF was useless and if I tried I just got frustrated.
Got the D800 and the AF on the sigma 150 became useful, rarely do I have to manual focus, but years of practice do support the recommendation of using the distance limiting switch, and I set the focus in the ball park distance by hand, then AF, that is when shooting by hand.

On a tripod with subjects really close, I'll focus by hand

[Peter Connan]

Thanks Armando.