Orange butterfly

Yesterday I finished the design and built the rim light. I designed it with six LED lights, three to a switch, so that a half power is available. I used UV lights as that was what I had available in my box of tricks but I will replace them with white lights next time I go shopping. I was very pleased with the result, it actually looks quite professional. A casing would be nice, but I won't be bothering with that.

I did an exposure test under normal house lighting. Without the rim lighting, the shutter speed was 1/5th sec, with three lights 1/25th sec, all six lights 1/50th sec. So three rim lights gives slightly more than two stops advantage, the extra three lights adds a further stop advantage as would be expected. Under normal daylight conditions it would offer nothing, but an insect under the shade of a leaf in the undergrowth, the rim light could make the difference.

In the color test, some correction was necessary, blue to yellow and cyan to red. Not a big deal, but this should be solved when I fit the white LED's. The removal of shadows was awesome and the project was worth it just for this feature, as I photograph my fishing lure projects for another forum. I tested the rim light on several insects, including butterflies and none were phased by it, as long as you pointed it away when switching on.

I hit the grove late today, 09:30. overcast but bright conditions. Plenty around to shoot, the dragons were out, but I decided to concentrate on an orange colored butterfly, as it was fairly complete with only a small chunk out of its rear wing. I am finding it very difficult to find perfect specimens, not that perfection is important.

I saw a small, amorous hopper, hop onto the back of a much bigger hopper. This was interesting I thought, but by the time I got down for some creative angles, thinking that I had all the time in the world, it was all over. The suitably satisfied hopper had hopped off and was gone. The one shot that I had was just not worth keeping.

Not enthused by my first set, I returned to the grove for a second session. I captured shots of the illusive butterfly that attacked the dragon decoy, but couldn't get close enough for anything impressive. It is a common visitor but very hard to approach. A mediocre dragon shot and a large beetle went in the bin and another hopper shot and a weird insect made the reject file. With nothing better, I went with the Butterfly from the first session, as a follow up on the unusual angle theme of yesterdays blip.

After a few days of very successful blipping, I feel a bit down not being able to follow up, but blipping is like that. Some days it just doesn't happen and you cannot force it. Still, she is a beautiful butterfly that I haven't blipped before and like yesterdays, I am sure she will feature in all her glory in the future.

On the way home, a woman invited me in for a cup of coffee. What a beautiful home it was too. I am sure after about twenty minutes she was probably regretting the decision as I smelled like a sweaty camel, so I thanked her for the hospitality and made a run for it. After a shower, shave and a freshly polished head, I am feeling suitably refreshed.

As requested, for those who would like to check out Google earth, the co-ordinates are:

6^ 51' 40.72" S
107^ 34' 38.21

Dave