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Swallowtail - on air again.


Swallowtail - on air again.
Photo Information
Copyright: Peter Stoeckl (peter_stoeckl) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1629 W: 287 N: 3647] (10221)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-04-23
Categories: Insects
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 4600
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Swallowtails [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2006-04-24 8:15
Viewed: 1273
Points: 62
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Swallowtail - on air again.

Spring has come late to Austria this year. But once arrived, la Primavera makes things happen very quickly.

On a walk last Sunday in warm and hazy sunshine before a thunderstorm approaching, we found Prunus spinosa in full blossoms on the limestone hills above the vineyards to the south of Vienna, and both species of Swallowtails hilltopping – Iphiclides podalirius, the “scarce” one quite frequently, and also a few ones of Papilio machaon, the other one to be met in our region.

The Scarce Swallowtails were chasing each other with enormous speed, resting on blossoms for a few seconds in between, and two and two together high up in the air again – on 23 April 2006, definitely no later in the year than the years before.

Iphiclides podalirius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Scarce Swallowtail
Segelfalter
Koningspage
Le Flambé
Chupa leche
Podalirio

Family: Papilionidae.

Wingspan 70 – 90mm.

Distribution: North western Africa, Europe to 54° north, Turkey, Mid East, Mediterranean islands. Not native in Scandinavia and the UK, but on rare occasions reported as a migrant to the southern parts.

In the warmer parts of Europe these large and conspicuous butterflies can be seen in two generations: the first one from April to June, the second one from July to September. In the cooler parts and higher up in the mountains there is one generation to be seen from May to July.

Caterpillars feed on Prunus spinosa.

Location: A rocky place at the slopes of a prominent hill called Anninger in the Southern Vienna Woods, a few miles south of Vienna right above the vineyards of Gumpoldskirchen, at an elevation of approx. 350 meters above sea level.

Only my pocket camera at hand, a few shots with hands outstretched against a thorny Prunus spinosa, several attempts, many times missing the very quick and alert butterfly the moment the shutter was pressed. Two shots were quite successful.

Camera: Nikon COOLPIX E4600, 2288 x 1712 pixels, sRGB, 17mm, Macro activated, F/8.2, 1/132 sec., ISO-50, 23.04.2006, 11:41. No tripod, no flash.

Postwork: Photoshop Elements. Slightly cropped at left and right borders, butterfly selectively sharpened, noise removal on BG. Contrasts and saturation slighty increased, green desaturated. Resized to the web.

Have a very good and sunny day.
Thank you for looking.
firelord, pilonm, eruyanik, dew77, magal, Matt-Bird, samos, SkyF, ALIRIZA, jmp, thor68, ramthakur, phlr, Merlin, Christopher_PL, coasties, jeanpaul, marhowie, Kaszek, markula has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Merlin: good DOF with the "baby" camera ;)peter_stoeckl 1 04-28 09:17
To jmp: 3-D sensationpeter_stoeckl 1 04-28 08:39
To nixpix: ... well on the light and colourspeter_stoeckl 1 04-27 15:23
To wishnugaruda: Myanmar und Thailandpeter_stoeckl 1 04-26 13:48
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Peter,

Wondeful picute of a machaon butterfly over some apple tree flowers (I I think)!!! Perfect dof and pov... The background also is wonderful (The butterfly being all over the green bg). Colours are very natural also! Great catch!!!

TFS,

Michel

Hello Peter,
Beautiful butterfly that wonderfully presented! I like the flower also. Thank you.
Have a great week...
Ersin

  • Great 
  • dew77 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 4774 W: 294 N: 4020] (13209)
  • [2006-04-24 8:46]

Hello Peter!
Wonderful capture of wonderful butterfly.Color,POV,sharpness,details,framing and composition are excellent.TFS...:-)

  • Great 
  • osse Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 962 W: 0 N: 89] (7801)
  • [2006-04-24 8:58]

Hi Peter
Good close-up. Great sharpnes, details, DOF, note and POV.
Well done

osse

  • Great 
  • OzBY Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 182 W: 2 N: 312] (1085)
  • [2006-04-24 9:18]

Beautiful picture of a beautiful butterfly.
Excellent color, BG, ....
Oz

  • Great 
  • magal Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 224 W: 0 N: 313] (1241)
  • [2006-04-24 9:32]

Hi Peter
Very sharp shot - vivid colours and very good DOF. Great capture
TFS
Mark

Hi Peter.
Beautiful details and colour captured here on the butterflys wings. The lighting on the wings is nice to.
Well done, regards
Matt.

  • Great 
  • samos Gold Star Critiquer [C: 81 W: 4 N: 2] (39)
  • [2006-04-24 10:07]

Hello Peter very wonterful buterfly very beautiful photo superexcellent work thanks regards Stavros

  • Great 
  • SkyF Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2233 W: 188 N: 1929] (8127)
  • [2006-04-24 10:14]

Hallo Peter,
wow da fliegen ja schon die Prachtexemplare bei euch. Super erwischt hast den, mit seine wunderschoenen Details in den Fluegeln. Klasse Schaerfe und eine schoene Perspektive. Toll praesentiert in seiner gazen Pracht.
Gruss..Sky

Hi Peter,
Wonderful shot. POV, Details, nice colors and sharpness are excellent. Congratulations...
Ali Rıza

Great shot Peter.
Excellent composition, colors and details Perfect POV and great BG and like always, great note.
TFS!!!!
Congratulations
Regards
JC

Hi Peter,
I Like the perspective of this shot, It looks like an plane take off!!, excellent details ,The DOF is excellent, true colors and superb POV
TFS
Goutham R

  • Great 
  • thor68 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 792 W: 138 N: 1312] (5642)
  • [2006-04-24 12:17]

wow, ein super schwalbenschwanz!
superb capture of this impressive
butterfly, peter! :-).
excellent pov and composition
with the beautiful flower as a "resting" place.
now it´s really spring.
danke & viele grüße, thor.

  • Great 
  • jmp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1740 W: 95 N: 2273] (8411)
  • [2006-04-24 12:31]
  • [+]

Hi Peter
The Swallowtail really is going to fly out of the screen! Very good DOF, showing the background without distracting from the main subject. The 3-D sensation is outstanding.
The Spanish la Primavera is all a detail in your notes.
Best regards
José M.

Superb image, Peter.
Fantastic POV, DOF and colours of both the butterfly and the blossoms it hovers over.
TFS.

  • Great 
  • chiliu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1494 W: 0 N: 1175] (6494)
  • [2006-04-24 16:05]

Hi Peter,
Excellent macro shot! Good light and great POV,
very sharp and detailed, nice colours.
Thanks for sharing!

You think Spring is late in Austria? Come over here! Lovely shot of a perfect, fresh specimen. Impressive getting such good DOF with the "baby" camera ;) Nice, thoughtful composition.
Thanks Peter.
Nigel

Beautifull picture and composition! Excellent colours and sharpness - just *****.

Chris

Hi Peter

Wonderful shot. Lovely butterfly. Good light, colour, POV and composition. Well done! :-)

  • Great 
  • EOSF1 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1381 W: 126 N: 5246] (23469)
  • [2006-04-25 8:33]

Very good shot of this butterfly Peter, great background that makes the subject to stand out. Very sharp and well exposed too. Good note. Thanks.

Mario

Hej Piotrek!
Bardzo pieknie oddane kolory i szczegoly motyla. Wspaniale DOF i POW.
Gratulacje_Roma

  • Great 
  • phlr Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1241 W: 129 N: 881] (2814)
  • [2006-04-26 4:24]

Super stunning Peter!
Wondrful colour of this photo!
Photo above scale!
Keep on going and TFS!

Hallo Peter,
so wunderschön, in der freien Natur ist es eben doch was besonderes solche Wunderwerke zu sehen, nicht dass ich das Schmetterlingshaus nicht toll gefunden hätte, aber draußen ist es eine größere Herausforderung.
Vielen Dank für diese Schönheit.
Morgen gehts los nach Myanmar und Thailand, also dann bis in knapp 3 Wochen, servus
Sabine - wishnugaruda

Bonjour Peter
Félicitation pour cette très jolie prise de vue . C'est vraiment un beau papillon et les couleurs sont justes.
Félicitations pour la netteté et les détails.

Merci pour l'envoie et Bravo....JP

Wunderschön Peter, you have done so well on the light and colours. The sharpness is also very good, so many of the macro shots I see on TN are over sharpened to make up for lack of DOF. Well done, Rob.

  • Great 
  • Aramok Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 887 W: 101 N: 1439] (4972)
  • [2006-04-28 13:06]

wonderful - I just wish I could actually see one in the wild. Beautiful picture with fantastic detail.

TFS
Emma

Hi Peter, Very nice!
Very good use of ambient light to bring out some fantastic color..Very detailed, excellent DOF. I especially like the POV, and the spring blossoms add to the frame nicely.
Very well done!

Just catching up with my critiques after a few days away, sorry for the delay :)

Wow! A beautiful butterfly and a great photo. Colours are great. I think the only thing I would change would be to add some space either side to make it less central.
Andy

  • Great 
  • Kaszek Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 246 W: 58 N: 390] (1451)
  • [2006-05-09 17:21]

Superb photo Peter! Great sharpness, POV and details. Outstanding colours. TFS!!!

Excellent shot, Peter. Very good framing, great sharpness. Especially impressive since taken with your "pocket camera". Very informative note. Regards,
Mark

Great shot, I like the depth of field you can see where he is looking which gives the viewer a taste for the setting. Goes well with your notes.

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