Nice! Only white butterfly I have seen in my gardens and not often.

Won't they eat Cleome?

~Laura

Sherry-
Nice catch! I have a hard time photographing cabbage whites because they are constantly in motion.

Mine LOVE nasturtium (its a member of the brassica family, if I remember correctly.) They also were drawn to my salvia. Earlier in the season, there'd be 5-6 of them on my single salvia plant. Also, they loved when I let my oregano go to flower.

Sandy.

Laura, I looked up cleome, and the article said that, after DNA testing, they moved it to the Brassicales family, which is the group cabbage is in. My mother gave me two cleome plants this spring, which I planted - the seeds have apparently matured, and I'm just letting them drop where they may, since they're in my 'meadow.' I don't know if they have anything to do with the appearance of this butterfly, but I'll definitely check out the seeds now, and probably plant some of them myself.

Sandy, I've never planted nasturtiums, but I'll have to do so in the future - that's another plant my mother loves and plants every year. And I know what you mean about being constantly in motion. This one had a wobbly flight, different from any other butterfly around here.

SCG, I thought they'd be common up your way. Maybe if you plant some of their host plants, they will be!

Sherry

Well, there was one flying outside the window today while I was watching golf. So far this year, the whites are the only butterfly on this property with the exception of one Tiger Swallowtail last month. Thanks for your thoughts!

Up here in MN cabbages are so common I get sick of them two years ago I used to have ton of native whites(mustard ,checkered ) but once the cabbage whites came I have not seen a single native white since

You can't imagine how funny this is to me! For one thing, cabbage whites were pests when I had my vegetable garden. Holes everywhere in my broccoli! Now I don't mind them, but they are so common I barely look at them. Now what I wouldn't give for some of the beauties you get! Honestly, if you had to pick, wouldn't you rather have a pipevine swallowtail, or gulf fritillary? Things are so different in different parts of the country. It just shows to go ya!

Liz

I have tons of CWs, what I wouldn't give for one Sulfur...
They look so natural together. I saw swarms of Sulfurs two yrs ago, and not one since, strange.

Interesting how some butterflies are so common in certain areas of the country and in others they can't be found. I remember that you don't get Zebra Longwings where you are, right, Sherry? I now have many of them flittering around all day. They are slow moving and would be easy to photograph if I would just get off my butt.

Every year brings surprises.

Yes, I knew that others were tired of the cabbage whites, but there are zero white butterflies here, so, I like 'em! In Florida, you have the peacocks, Tom, though they're not pure white. Others in Florida have posted recently about large numbers of ZLs - that's wonderful!
I don't get zebra longwings, just the gulf frits.

I used to get pipevine swallowtails, mainly because female visited and laid eggs. I've only seen two this year, both males.

I used to have giant swallowtails, but there was only one male that stayed - 'need an egg-laying female.

But I do have plenty of spicebush swallowtails, red-spotted purples, buckeyes, long-tailed skippers and cloudless sulphurs!

Sherry

I forgot about the tiger swallowtails - 'have a lot of them, too.

Sherry

Beautiful shot misssherry! CW are one of the only ones we are seeing in MI.. I have not even seen any spicebush swallowtails and they were as plentiful as the CW's last year... sad, sad season for MI.

Actually, funny thing is I don't think I've EVER seen one of those before that I remember. I've seen a few pictures though, of course, and thought its wings looked like a bridal veil.

The CW's are pretty common up here everywhere but my yard. LOL I will have to plant some host plants for them.

Sherry you mentioned you have problems with white and sulphur pictures may I ask you what camera you are using I might be able to help you out.

SCG

SCG, my camera is a Canon PowerShot Elph 100HS (Digital) that I got on sale for $100. I've been thinking about upgrading to a nice camera. I'd like to keep the cost under $1000 however. I'd like a camera that has a good macro lens, since I often like to take close-up shots. Also, as you've noted, one that can photograph white and yellow butterflies without looking terribly overexposed.

I have a LOT of birds here - I feed and plant for them on my 5 1/2 acres - but getting a good bird picture with my little point-and-shoot is about impossible. I need a camera that would allow me to take pictures from a distance - it would need a good zoom lens, I suppose. A pair of Mississippi kites seems to have taken up residence here. It's normal to be visited by them here and there, but I've been seeing and hearing these for about ?2 months now, and I'd sure like to get their picture!

I have a lot of hummingbirds, and I'd love to be able to photograph them, too, especially if I get winter hummers like I did last year - a rufous stayed all winter, even transformed himself by molting!

If you have some good recommendations, let me know. I could spend more than $1000, I guess, if the camera was REALLY good! :)

Sherry

Misssherry, I got my Nikon D3200 with the 18-55mm kit lens and a 55-200mm lens for less than $900 The 200mm is great for those elusive Butterflies because you dont have to get so close.. you just zoom in!

What is happening is your camera is reading the picture as being too bright and reducing the exposure. To compensate for this you would have to add "+" exposure with the exposure compensation feature on your camera. Your camera actually did a good job on the exposure on the above photo as it only needs about +0.5 in Exposure compensation. If you would like further help on this let me know.

To honest unless you spend a lot of money on lenses 'point and shoot' camera's are going to be your best bang for the buck. Also will be a more versatile without lugging around a bunch of lenses.

For all the photo's I posted I am using a 70-200 lens with a 1.4X teleconverter. Now all but the Great spangled and Aphrodite photo all my pictures are heavily cropped, most about half the size of the original. This is because, like the 55-200mm lens mentioned above, the minimum focus distance is around 4' at full zoom. I would need a macro lens (wish list) to be able to focus closer and fill the frame. The lens I want for insects is $1,700 by itself.

One of the biggest benefits of SLR type camera's and wildlife photos is there is no shutter lag. This means there is no delay in taking the picture from when you press the shudder button. That being said a lot of the higher end 'point and shoot' that delay is significantly reduced.

As to recommendations under $1000 I would look at a super zoom like the Panasonic FZ200 (MSP $600). IMHO, Panasonic is one of the best in this class for image quality. I have an older version and love it. You will be able to do almost everything with it and get high quality photos. If you want to get into the SLR market the camera mentioned in the above post is a good starting point, I am a nikon fan. But to get lenses to shoot only what you mentioned you are going to spend, at a bare minimum, $2000.

SCG

For my macro lens I have a wide angle with macro that I just screw into my 18-55 kit lens, it is going on e-bay for $29 it is the lens that I took the shot in the post, "The face of a Red Spotted Purple" I was only about 1.5 inches away.. I love it and have taken some pretty cool shots with it., This was a shot of a tree frog I found last night, again.. with the 29 dollar lens.

SCG, that's all too complicated for me. Every time I think I want to get a better camera, I'm scared off by the language - I can barely operate a point-and-shoot!
I remember seeing an exposure setting when I was playing around with the camera, but I can't find it now. It seems like you'd reduce the exposure, since yellow and white butterflies appear overexposed? I'd appreciate further advice about that.

'Love that frog picture, Nature's Folly! Whatever the cost of the lens, it's a good one.

Sherry

Sherry, I'm upgrading my camera in the off-season. Look at eBay...they have 'manufacturer refurbished' cameras for ridiculously cheap AND you can get a squaretrade warranty on them. You can get top notch quality for under 500 bucks.

I usually research on amazon and then buy on ebay. Make sure you buy from a top notch vendor with 98% positive reviews or above. Tony

That is a great capture. Problem with those setups is the image quality for print, I tried them and yeah they are good for low res web shots but when printed, at even 8x10, quality suffered substantially.

IMHO, you go to an DSLR for two reasons: shutter speed and image quality. A DSLR with poor glass produces images comparable to high end 'point and shoot' cameras. One has to decide what they are going to go with a camera. If you plan to leave it in auto and buy cheap glass you are way better off with a high end 'point and shoot', again IMHO.

Again great capture!!

SCG

Well my post took a longtime due to kids and deadheading. I really, really suggest the FZ200, really.

Unless you understand camera knowledge you can spend $10 grand and produce poor photos. If you buy the FZ And don't like it I will buy it from you. I am that confident.

SCG

SouthCountryGuy, I dunno, My camera is 24,megapixels which means I can print in large size.. but for here I think misssherry's pic is perfect.. color, beauty.. who can ask for more?

@NaturesFolly Yeah, you could print huge size BUT any lack of sharpness or chromatic aberration (color fringing) is going to be very noticeable. One really has to use the best lenses to take full advantage of high megapixels. The other trade off of high Mp is digital noise (grain) at medium to high ISO, especially on APS-C (crop) sensors.

I totally agree that misssherry pic is nearly perfect and for the web you can't ask for more.

Hope you all have a great day!

Sherry-
I upgraded my old Powershot with a new one last year. I went with the Powershot SX40HS. It has the same menu options and set-up as my old camera (plus some), with some manual settings as well, and a 35x zoom. It was a couple hundred $, but with a new model out this year, you'd most likely be able to get a good deal on the older model. I was already familiar with how to work it since the menu and options are accessed the same way, and once I got a feel for the weight and size, was comfortable with it right away. I am in love with the zoom capability. I took this picture from a good 20+ feet away. It focuses quickly and is super quiet.

You can do some adjusting of color, saturation, contrast, and brightness with the Canon software that comes with their cameras (zoom browser.) If something looks washed out, I will turn down the brightness, increase the contrast, and increase the saturation, just tiny bits until I like how it looks, and it can usually fix the issue. Learning some of the manual settings on the camera help, too. The powershot line has pretty decent automatic settings too. If you're most concerned with how whites or yellows will photograph, take some white and yellow things outside (or use flowers if you have them) and play around with the white balance and settings for natural light, cloudy days, etc, or special settings for foliage, beach, etc.

Also, any time I'm having a print made to hang up, I go through mpix.com. They're more expensive than regular retail stores or shutterfly etc, but I haven't found better quality. I usually print 8x10s, and they come back perfect every time.

Hope this helps,
Sandy.

Sandy that is another good camera in this class. Can you tell me if your able to access white balance settings and exposure control features from within the canon software?

Love the butterfly too!

Thanks, Sandy!

I really like the small size of this little Canon - is your upgrade bigger? I also like the idea of not having to relearn a totally new camera.

I know how to work some of the manual settings. I set macro manually for my picture of the buckeye chrsyalis on another thread - I wanted you to be able to see the markings. Frequently, however, when I set it to macro, it won't focus, just looks blurry. That's a GREAT idea about playing around with whites and yellows! I'll definitely do that, and I'll continue to look for the exposure setting. My camera is probably about as good as $100 can buy.

Sherry

SCG- from the edit menu, there are 4 manual adjustment settings (in addition to their auto adjust.) The color adjustment is what I typically play with. Your options there are for overall brightness, saturation, and contrast. The RGB option lets you adjust for reds, greens, and/or blues. There are 2 more which I haven't even gotten into, Level Adjusement and Tone Curve Adjustment. Level Adjustment seems to be the one to use for white balance and exposure.

Sherry, this is quite a bit larger. My old PS is the size of a deck of cards. The new one is almost the size of a DSLR, which I was a little worried about at first. But I've found the weight is really well balanced and the handgrip fits my hand perfectly. I'm able to hold, focus and shoot with one hand (but need 2 because I'm a little shaky.) You also have the option of setting shutter speed and aperture manually, not nearly to the extent of a full DSLR, but its been a good "learning" camera for when I'm ready to go that route someday. It records HD video if you're into that sort of thing. There are some nice effects options to choose from as well.

I keep my old camera (an SD630) for using if I want something I can just put in my pocket for casual use. I"ve also found it still takes slightly better super-close macro shots. I don't really miss that with the new camera as much as I thought I would, surprisingly.

I found one in my butterfly house:-)