Friday, August 7, 2009

Niagara Botantical Gardens

Perched on Light

After the Niagara White Water Walk, we spent an hour or two at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory which is located at the Niagara Botanical Gardens. The conservatory is North America's largest indoor butterfly garden. Basically, it is tropical arboretum with a netting to keep the butterflies safe and inside.

More after the jump.

This is the reason why I was practicing with my macro extension tubes a few weeks ago. I wanted to have some idea of which one to use and how it would affect my camera/lens before I got there. I mounted the middle sized tube with my 70-300mm lens which allowed me to stand a fairly safe distance away from the butterflies. I think that I got a few nice shots but none that I had really hoped to capture.

The shot above is a butterfly perched on the netter that surrounds the conservatory. I overexposed it so that the netting would be hidden by the hightlights, thus making it look like the butterfly was standing on just the sunlight itself. Generally it worked, but the picture isn't as sharp as I would have hoped it would be. The butterfly's eyes are crisp really. Still, it was a beautiful place to visit and different from the roiling waters of the falls and the gorge.

Keep shooting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks moe like a painting than a photo to me.

smiles,
Angie S.
Everyday Eclecticism

Craig Lee said...

Oooh, I hadn't thought it it like that. Thanks.