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My First Butterfly


My First Butterfly
Photo Information
Copyright: Ram Thakur (ramthakur) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3297 W: 167 N: 9918] (32174)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-08-07
Categories: Insects
Camera: Sony DSC-P200
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2006-10-03 14:47
Viewed: 909
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 38
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
MY FIRST BUTTERFLY

No sooner had I reached the lush green hills of Shimla, India, on August 7 this year after living in the arid desert of Saudi Arabia for more than a year than the compulsive urge to go looking for butterflies got too difficult to resist. Fortunately, there was a brief lull in monsoon rains that day, so I just grabbed my camera and headed for the thick alpine forest just above the house of my wife’s parents where we had arrived that morning.

After passing by a rather smelly colony of shanty dwellers, I reached a glade choked with all sorts of resplendently green hill plants. It took my eyes some time to get used to the richness of it all. Gradually, as the vision settled onto an even keel, I started noticing varieties of wild insects among the plants including some butterflies. Naturally, my urge to shoot butterflies got the better of me and I started chasing them excitedly. Very soon, some of the most glamorous looking butterflies had taken the steam out of me without letting me take even a single shot of them. At that moment, my respect and admiration for our TN friends Heinz and Howard went up by several notches!

Anyway, I did succeed in taking a few pictures that morning, mostly of some bugs and one rather battered looking butterfly (I somehow ended up taking pictures of generally battered butterflies during my trip to India this year!). Here is my first picture of that butterfly.
It is a brown coloured butterfly with a set of eye spots on the wings. Despite a great deal of research, I could not establish the ID of this species. It does look like a Pansy but rather in a distant way. I hope my very knowledgeable friend Peter (BATU) will come up with some valuable guidance.

It is a hand held shot with the camera in auto mode. The original picture in high res was reduced and resized for TN. Saturation was enhanced only slightly.
Please do help in identifying if you can, and thanks for looking.
dew77, Hay_kes, nainnain, Hil, fyapici, Necipp, blakitan, jeanpaul, BEHRAD, coasties, manyee, jmp, jcoowanitwong, peter_stoeckl, eruyanik, Christopher_PL has marked this note useful
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ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To batu: Thanks, Peterramthakur 2 10-04 07:31
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • dew77 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 4774 W: 294 N: 4020] (13209)
  • [2006-10-03 15:16]

Hello Ram,
Wonderful butterfly capture.POV,colors,lighting,details and composition are excellent.
TFS...:-)

Hi Ram,
Exellent macro.Colours, details and compo are wonderful.TFS.

hAyAti

bravo pour cette réussite parfaite, ce papillon ressort très bien sur ce fond vert, bon travail
edith

  • Great 
  • Hil Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 705 W: 13 N: 1405] (5027)
  • [2006-10-03 16:31]

Hi Ram

Great shot, with excellent composition and pose, nice sharp detail and lovely colours, the markings are a bit like a Dryad but they have two spots on upper wings, maybe they belong to the smae family.

TFS Hilary :o)

  • Great 
  • batu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1060 W: 290 N: 3952] (13358)
  • [2006-10-03 16:42]
  • [+]

Hallo Ram,
thank you for this nice picture of a Satyrine species. It belongs to the species-rich genus Ypthima which includes more than 110 species worldwide. In India, there are about 20 different but very similar species. The wing underside pattern is very helpful in identification. So, I can only guess here and suppose as identity:
-- Ypthima sakra
Best wishes,
Peter

Hi Ram.
Your first but the best one :) Congratulations.
Greetings
Fevzi

merhaba güzel çalışma tebrikler

Great shot nice detail. really sharp I think Iwouldclone out the bright white things top right rgds Necip

Hi Ram,
Great shot. Nice DoF. Sharp and neat image. Well done. Hope to see more butterfly from you.

Ben Lakitan

Hi Ram
Great shot,good POV & lighting.
I like it.
Regards
Behrad

Hi Ram

Very nice work. You show this butterfly well. Nice composition. Good colours. Well done.

Hello Ram, you first butterfly is nice!
What can we expect next time???
Goos compo and true colors.
Well done and thanks for sharing yuor new experience.

Andrea

  • Great 
  • manyee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3067 W: 231 N: 6165] (21068)
  • [2006-10-04 3:24]

Congratulations on your first butterfly, Ram.
What a beauty. : )
You captured it in a great POV, in good light and with sharp details. The clean BG, though a bit bright, brings out the contrasting colors of the butterfly very nicely.
TFS. : )

  • Great 
  • radz Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 603 W: 11 N: 616] (3404)
  • [2006-10-04 5:34]

Beautiful shot,love the contrast of main subject and bg..Dof &POV are fantastic.

  • Great 
  • jmp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1740 W: 95 N: 2273] (8411)
  • [2006-10-04 8:17]

Hi Ram,
It's a wonderful place where you have captured this butterfly. Exuberant plants everywhere and very active butterflies to catch! Good details, natural colors and a good pov.
Best regards, José M.
PS. Some TN members has magical skills to capture butterflies:-)

Hello Ram,
Nice shot of your first one on this trip back home. So you had your fun in chasing butterfly. Looking forward for your second butterfly.
JC

Bonjour Ram
Très joli ce macro, les détails et les contrastes sont réussis très jolis couleurs
et le vert des feuilles fait bien ressortir la couleur du papillon
Bravo et merci...JP
Les sourire demain

  • Great 
  • murgur (66)
  • [2006-10-04 15:20]

Sharp details, very nice POV and background. Congratulations!

Hello Ram,
very beautiful, well composed picture.
Very pretty butterfly, that looks definitely three dimensional on my screen in perfect light and shadow.
I like the subtle shades of brown on the wings.
The fine contrast of these subtle hues against the screamingly saturated green leaves of humid subtropical forests is fascinating.
With thanks, and best regards,
Peter

Wow! Another wonderful post of a butterfly. This one looks wonderful to me, especially with that lovely brown tones and impressive eyes on the wings! Sharpness, colours are really superb and lively shot. pov, framing are great too! btw, alpine forests what a great place should be! i love that fir and spruce forests on highest elevations! Still i'm not sure which kind of forest on there. Great first meeting my friend you have managed wonderfully in your shot also!
Ersin

I realy like to browse your pictures. Every time I can find there something interesting ;-D
On this picture I especially like the "eyes" on the wings.
TFS

Chris

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