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Eye to eye


Eye to eye
Photo Information
Copyright: Jim Costello (bullybeef53) Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 28 W: 5 N: 140] (644)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-04-09
Categories: Insects
Camera: Sony Dsc F-717, 58mm UV
Exposure: f/2
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-04-10 19:11
Viewed: 507
Points: 4
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
“Eye to eye” is the name of a photo and it was taken at the butterfly exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed. Using my Sony 717 in macro mode, I took a few photos of this wonderful creature. The lens of the camera was only one or 2 cm from the butterfly’s eye. The object of this photo was to capture in detail the front part of the butterfly especially his head, upper body, and legs. I’m saving up for secondhand macro lens.
Owl butterflies, of which there are 21 different species, are members of the genus Caligo, in the family Nymphalidae ( subfamily Morphinae, tribe Brassolini ), and are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Central and South America.
Owl butterflies are very large, and fly only a few metres at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their settling place, which is nearly always on a tree trunk. Once settled however the mottled patterning of the butterfly enables it to be superbly camouflaged against the tree trunk, with only the eyespot remaining prominent.
They feed during the cooler dawn & dusk times on rotting fruits. All the above pictured butterflies were basically the same size, and as you can judge from the top right photo, they have a wingspan of about 15 centimetres/6 inches.
This photograph a cropped, level adjusted saved for the web.

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Critiques [Translate]

Nice close up detail. The butterfly is actually Morpho Peleides, the Blue Morpho, not one of the Owls.

Jim,

What a beautiful picture. The details are quite well captured. If you had stepped a bit to the left, you could have caught the entire butterfly wings in full sharpness.

Regards,
Murali Santhanam

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