Monarch Butterfly on Canadian Thistle!

[bvar22]

Nikon D200 18-200mmVR at 200mm
ISO 500 1/1250 F/5.6











Oh, MAN!
I ache for the almost shots!!!

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Beautiful!

Love the sharpness and the sequencing :)

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Excellent, Bvar.

Wasn't this your goal for the summer? :applause:

[bvar22]

5. Yes, one of the photo goals.

The pic is not exactly what I want, but close.
I want a blue sky background, so I am still stalking the Monarchs. :)

[Maestro]

3. Nice series.

I even like the almost pic!

[Gregorian]

4. You caught it.

Hey bvar, I just got a D200. What a great camera.

I've been chasing Monarchs and hummingbirds. But they won't sit still long enough. :)

[bvar22]

11. Welcome to D200 World!

I had some early teething problems. I thought there was something wrong with my camera, and almost sent it back. ALL my problems were Technique (No. 1 offender), and knowledge deficit.
I'm in love with it now.
Good Luck with yours.


The manual for the D200 is a little vague about some of the capabilities of this fantastic camera.
I found this site very helpful. There is a wealth of operational information specific to the D200 posted by the owners themselves.
I'm a member, and recently posted my first pics there.


http://www.nikonians.org/

http://www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID202&conf=DCConfID3


I spent about 4 weeks trying to sneak up on the Monarchs without much success. They are very shy, and apparently have good vision.
I changed technique yesterday. I dressed in camo and hid in some tall grass in a small meadow where I had seen several Monarchs. I trimmed a couple of thistles of their dead obstructions so that there were three prime buds at about the same focus distance on a 90 degree spread. I pre-focused (manual), got comfortable and waited. After about 30 mins, the Monarchs returned, and eventually landed on the bait. Some of them were pretty beat up and didn't make good pictures. (They looked like my cat had been playing with them. I was amazed they could fly.) They were good to practice on.
Eventually, the one above decided to pose for me. I was delighted.
The above shots were handheld at 200mm, but I plan on using a tripod next time.

I'm still stalking the Monarch. I want to get one on the thistle with a blue sky background.
It shouldn't be too difficult now that I know an approach that works.

There are a couple of other D200s here, and several D70s. Welcome to the group.
I look forward to your posts.

Bob
St Paul, MN

[Gregorian]

12. Aha.

Yes, I found the Nikonian site. And I have downloaded the spreadsheet for setting the menus. That was simply amazing to find what in-camera sharpening can do.

It's a big learning curve. But I'm just setting it up and pretty much leaving it. Until I can bring the rest of my art up to speed. Like learning how to bait the butterflies. The same goes for hummingbirds, I hear.

I've been spending most of my time here-

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1021

And they have a lens forum as well.

Currently I'm using the 17-80. As soon as Nikon makes enough 18-200's, I'll be grabbing one of those. But my lens envy is starting to grow. I knew interchangeable lenses would stretch my budget. But I just had to have this camera. It's pretty nice.

[insane_cratic_gal]

6. Pretty ! much better then my Fly on poo!

http://xs.to>

[Gregorian]

7. Haha!

I will refrain from going into my tyrrade. Whether it's the loggers who literally shit right on the roads here in Oregon, or the photographer forums where only "pretty" pictures are ever posted, and so on and so forth. Instead, I'll just say YAY! :)


That is either a very big fly, or yuck.

[insane_cratic_gal]

8. Actually that was a treat left by

my dog..on my own lawn so no foul on anyone elses terf =)

a zoom lens, so it's really not as large as it looks just cut in close and cropped down!

I keep saying, next time I'll get a very small dog at least the poo bombs will be smaller!

http://xs.to>


I was even horrified that I took it! but if Pollack can piss on canvas I certainly can shoot a fly on poo!

Maybe that should be August's photo contest, the ugliest photo you can make into art.

[Gregorian]

9. I think that's what rotten.com is for.

I suppose there's no point in hunting for the lowest common denominator, unless you work for Bush.

But the question remains- is it art?

[Immad2]

10. Great catch bvar22!! Beautiful!