More macro!

I went out again today and took more pictures.  The sky was still very overcast, but I went out in the afternoon, so there was more light.  I took my tripod with me but didn't end up using it because I was walking around so much, and I could generally get sharp "enough" images after a few tries.  

The first thing I happened to photograph was this cute butterfly that kept walking around on the flower and didn't want to be photographed.  

 

Photo op!

 I got a few more pictures of it, though not any great ones.  

"Cinematic" (ha) crop at 16:9.  I think the antennae is in focus but the rest of the butterfly is not.  Oops. 

 

This is my favorite one, even though it's the butterfly butt and it's mostly out of focus.  You can see the scales on the wing and the shallow depth of field creates an interesting effect in my opinion.  I'm amazed at the detail I was able to capture! 

Butterfly butt!

 

That's actually the last one I got before it flew away.  

There weren't many live flowers to photograph, much like yesterday.  

 

This flower was nice though.  

Some sort of daisy.  Still slightly more blurry than I'd like. 

Something is eating the eucalyptus trees: 

Yummy eucalyptus leaves!  Don't eat these unless you're a koala, or whatever bug is eating them here. 

 

I also re-tried the "use the macro lens as a telephoto lens" thing and had mixed results.  After a lot of modification in Capture One Express (exposure down, contrast way up, brightness up), the images look closer to real life.  I think the contrast is the biggest thing missing from the straight-out-of camera images.  

Super weird to see banana trees in an area with oak/eucalyptus.  Apparently this area had a nursery and they just left some plants when they closed up shop.

Yes, need to clean my sensor.  But also -- look at those brave people!

 

Still excited to use this lens even more.  I hope that there's better light next weekend.  And in a month or so, monarch butterflies should be migrating and taking their annual break very close to me -- hopefully I can find a time with fewer people to visit in a COVID-friendly way.