GIANT SWALLOWTAIL IN FLIGHT

A beautiful Giant Swallowtail flew around my backyard today – and again I only had my macro lens available. So-o-o the only thing to do was try to get as good a shot as possible by increasing the shutter speed. Adding to the complexity, the butterfly wouldn’t land for even a second, so all my shots were not only with a macro lens at a distance, but also while it was in flight. Its underside is a beautiful, complete contrast to the top side. (I’ve put a few other shots of this lovely creature on Flickr.)

Until this butterfly came along, I thought I’d be blipping a squirrel trying to outsmart the squirrel protector on the bird feeder. It was a riot to watch – he must have tried a dozen times. When he fell, he’d get right back up and try again. The cutest shot is when he fell into the boxwood shrub and sat there trying to figure another way to get to the seed. A sequence of shots is on Flickr – I couldn’t have shown his struggles with just one picture on blip.

The truth about the macro lens is that’s the only lens I’m (barely) comfortable with so far. Since I’ve had this new, complex camera, I started out by learning to use the macro lens and just haven’t graduated to anything else. I see I’m missing too many shots, so I’m going to have to take the leap and try to learn how to use the mid-distance lens.