Propertius Duskywing skipper on dandelion

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:48 pm

At least I think I have the ID correct on this beast. Hopefully one of my friends in the Lepidopterists' Society will confirm or correct the ID.

This is an example of what I've taken to calling "arm's length macro", meaning it was taken with a point-and-shoot camera held at arm's length to avoid spooking the subject. Many thanks to Nikola for introducing me to the technique.

--Rik

Technical: Canon SD700 IS camera with auto-everything. Photoshop reports f/5.6 at 1/250 sec. Mild crop, approximately 1/2 of full-frame area, rotated to improve appearance, slight cloning of background detail to fill out one cropped corner of rotated frame.
Location: Bear Canyon, off Hwy 12 near Naches, WA, May 13, 2007.

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun May 13, 2007 11:59 pm

Yep Rik, very nice!

With those little point-and-shoot cameras you can make basketball acrobatics shooting with ease from most weird positions.

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Mon May 14, 2007 6:09 am

Good shot Rik. I am amazed that that quality is available on a point and shoot.

Irwin

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:59 am

Thanks, guys!

I am pleased to report that my Lep Soc friends confirm the ID.

This critter turns out to have a special relationship to some of my earlier work.

If you look at Figure 3 here, you'll see that I used a caterpillar of the same species as one example, in an article on extended depth of field photography.

The larva had been given to me by a biologist to photograph. While I had it at hand, I probably checked the books to see what the adult would look like. But obviously it didn't stick, because when I was in the field, I didn't know what this thing was. With luck, maybe I'll remember next time.

Irwin, yes, these little point-and-shoots are evolving into quite wonderful pieces of equipment. Tack sharp, motion stabilized, macro built in, with surprisingly usable auto-focus, and the thing fits in a pocket. I'm going to have to rethink what I carry, when I backpack.

--Rik

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:00 am

That is one hell of a name. I would say it came out rather nice also. The skippers do spook very easily IME (in my experience)