Hi Jack,
Thanks for the feedback and the extra factoïd, always interesting to learn here.
My pleasure. I just bought "the" definitive guide to southeastern moths here in the U.S. (by Dr. Covell) and learned this fact myself.
Moth species outnumber butterfly species by more than 14-to-1 and yet there is hardly any written material on them.
Agree with you on the background, makes it drab for a true nature lover, but I don't mind too much, but I'm probably more attached to my front door vs the average member here
Well, as you said in another post (on another thread), part of photography is pleasing the eye of the viewer ... and most people who enjoy photos of natural subjects want to see them in their natural surroundings
Also with these following shots I've been unlucky with the background as you can see.
These were taken on a bicycle ride where photography was not the main objective, so I only had one lens with me, an old Tamron 28-200 superzoom. With a bit of cropping I'm still not unhappy with the results:
Comments (background and other) most welcome. Always trying to learn.
What I have found, when confronting interesting subjects in harsh lighting, is simply to use a flash.
If there is "empty space" behind the subject, 9x out of 10 that space will come out black when you use a flash which removes the bizarre color harsh light can give the background and in turn makes your subject really stand-out.
If there are branches and such behind your subject, the use of the right amount of flash again removes the harshness of bad mid-day lighting, and lets those branches look more normal-colored.
Without the use of flash in the harsh, mid-day sun ... the background usually becomes a sickly green (rather than a cool, pleasant green) and the true coloration of your subject is really hard to get, even with hours of post-processing.
So, the next time you find a dragonfly (or other interesting subject) in the harsh mid-day light, try taking some photos naturally ... and then take some with the flash ... and compare your results ... and I think the photos with flash will prove to be your keepers.
Other than that, outdoor macro shots using natural light are best taken in the morning, IMO, before the sunlight gets too harsh.
That is my $0.02
Jack
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