Dino Adventure sep 17 th 2012

For a change, a quick trip to Chester zoo as the weather not too good, especially for the mountains.   really enjoy going to the zoo , always something to photograph but this time it was a fun day walking around the Dino exhibit :)

but first, a few shots from around the Zoo on the way to the gardens where the Dino's are set out.
first to see where the bush dogs, always fun to watch running around following each other :D

                            walking past the raptors i have managed a shot of one of the owls in the aviary

           and one of the two gorgeous tiger cubs :)  which have now been sent away to form new breeding pairs in Europe :(    will miss seeing them!

       Right!  its Dino time, i have not a clue what to expect. starting next to the "realm of the  Comodo dragon "   with this bronze statue

walking through the entrance i can see a small Dino in the bushes  but then came face to face with this!!!!!!

  i have just been soaked as it spits water! wtf!     so funny really :D  very realistic with all parts animated moving backwards and side to side then bending down to eye level .

  further down the path i have come across this huge head!   haha  not moving though

                                around the corner is Triceratops with little babies :) cute!

                                                 they merge is so well in with the gardens

                                                                peanut head Dino :)

                                                    must be feeding time for the Dino's lol

                                                Tyrannosaurus Rex , with a youngster

 

baby in the bushes :D

stuck in the mud???????

that was the last of the Dino exhibits

walking around the rest of the i take a few shots before it starts to rain, sigh!

                                                 a face only a mother could love  haha

i have taken shelter in the tropical house, but is so dark in here i am really struggling to  shoot anything, managed this lovely image using iso 4000 to get enough shutterspeed.

                       i have chased this sunbittern around for ages , this is the best i can get.

i stop off in the jaguar house, not a sign of the big cats but for once the sloth is in a position to photograph is face!  Yay    iso 6400 for this one as its very dark , but is first time i have ever seen its face :D

                             the end of a unusual day to say the least , really enjoyed it :D

Chester Zoo Butterflies july 2012

In between all my butterfly and mountain trips i managed a few short trips to Chester Zoo.  the butterfly house was today's trip as it was raining out. so a warm tropical greenhouse seemed like a good decision.
it is only small but enough butterflies to shoot for a quick 2 hour visit.   i will just let the images tell the story, not a lot to write about but all shots taken hand held using high iso due to low light.

                              an Ithomid butterfly,  my fav image of the day  f6.3 , iso 1000 , 1/125th sec

                                           A pair of Owl Butterflies  f7.1  iso 1000  1/100th

                                              Owl butterfly wings   f4.5  iso 1000  1/60th

                                                 Indian leaf butterfly  f5  iso 640  1/100th

                                                     Ithomid     f4   iso 1000  1/80th

                                                            f9  iso 320  1/200th  flash used

                                                                 f4.5  iso 640  1/200th

 

f9  iso 1000 1/200th  flash used

                                                                   f4  iso 1000 1/80th

                                

             and finally a tropical frog, natural light, 5 frames focus stacked shot through glass

it is always nice to spend a few hours in here, just watching the butterflies flitting around, so peaceful until school parties come through and disturb the peace and tranquillity :(  Arghhhhhhhhh

Chester zoo butterfly house 15 may

Well!  guess what ?   yes you guessed its Raining again!  Arghhhh

So the only option is to practise shooting butterflies in the nice warm butterfly house at Chester zoo.
its always good to spend a few hours in amongst the tropical butterflies, usually a few new species to see and try to shoot along with the usually favourites:)

I decided to start off shooting with 100mm macro with a full set of extension tubes to do a few high mag portraits, all of which are focus stacked to increase depth of field.
here is an owl butterfly

These are probably the most common species seen in the house along with Blue Morpho,   Here is a blue!

At the far end of the house there is a small pool and stream, and fruit is put down for the butterflies to feed on, the Indian leaf butterfly especially likes to feed on fruit:)

After shooting enough close ups , i took the tubes of and just used the 100mm macro, there were plenty of Ithomids flying , so here are a few shots of these beauties .

A White Morpho had been fluttering around for ages , quite an ungainly flyer and it eventually landed long enough to shoot this image!  Stunning!

       
  It always fascinates me watching them feed, the length of their proboscis uncoiling to probe the centre of the flowers:)    very difficult to shoot while getting very close and still have enough available light to keep a high enough shutter speed to prevent motion blur!

                                                                          and a bit closer!

               Back to full body shots:)    Indian leaf perched up!  just in front of previous image!
                                                      amazing patterns on this individual!

wings open showing the glorious colour!  almost like flashing a warning to predators to keep away!

                                                                                finally

          Another stunning butterfly:)) managed to get really nice light and isolation in this image!
                                                            my favourite image of the day!

                              all images canon 5d2 , 100mm L macro , extension tubes

Chester Zoo Butterfly House April 30

Since the weather has been so bad for the last 3 weeks and no butterflies have been emerging,  i needed to get some practise for when, or IF we eventually get some warm dry weather to encourage them to emerge!    so the warm tropical butterfly house at Chester zoo  was a good place to spend a cold spring day :))))
I don't usually visit at this time of year so it was a good surprise to see loads of species i normally will not see in the winter time in here :)
My plan was to use a set of extension tubes on a 100mm macro lens to shoot some close ups first , then full body shots later but as it turned out there where so many butterflies to shoot, i ended up swapping around all day!

                                                          Here is a phone shot of the "house"

My first shot was of an "Indian leaf" butterfly feeding, shot at x2 magnification. 3 frames focus stacked in photoshop by hand on layer masks to increase depth of field.

Here is a different "leaf" to show its wonderful camouflage, yes its on my hand!!!!  it actually fed on my hand for over 20 minutes while i carried on shooting!  i had placed my hand on a banana while shooting the close up image , so plenty of remnants on skin  :)))

Next species to shoot in close up was a "blue morpho" butterfly, quite a large species which normally stays still for long periods which allows good focus stacks to be shot. 14 frames hand held this image!

I took the extension tubes of and started shooting full shots, using higher iso to keep shutter speed high enough to prevent motion blur.   the butterflies are placed on a large shrub after emerging and i found this beauty hanging after recently emerging. a 2 frame focus stack.

                           Here is a Ithomid butterfly, a close relative of the Heliconids.   iso 640, f6.3

                                                   Another shot from inside the house!

and this was shot in the lower right hand corner from above image.

There had been a very large white butterfly fluttering around and eventually i found it resting on the ground, it turned out to be a "white morpho"   firstly i shot a natural light focus stack

                                                         then a close up with flash, focus stacked.

                                               Here are just a few other species that i shot

              An  Indian leaf butterfly showing alot more colour than the camouflaged under wings

There were quite a few Swallowtails fluttering around feeding on the flowers, i managed to get this shot but did shoot alot of frames to get just 2 in focus images!!

           And another couple of feeding shots :) This is a single frame , frames would not align for a focus stack, it was moving too much while feeding!  haha

Shot with flash & higher iso to balance background light to prevent a black background caused by flash fall out.

                              Another phone pic showing another part of the area by the boardwalk

              Here is a beautifully back lit species, love the light through the wings:D  one of my favourite images of the day:)))))))

                   A few more "Indian leaf" shots,this one on my hand, they do vary in colour alot!

The Glasswing is one of my favourite butterflies , so hard to shoot! another of my best shots of the day:)

A Final artistic shot :))))

all shots Canon 5d2 and 100mmL macro