Butterfly Farm : Behind The Scenes

to those who always wondered what it might look like behind the scenes~~ XD


to those who haven't seen my Butterfly Farm post... well you can click HERE to go to it~ =)

Ahem... well some have been asking me what lens was I using in that shoot, and no I did not use a macro lens, more like couldn't use cause I don't have any... =(
Anyways... I used my trusty 17-40mm first because I could get a closer range with it, but ended out it didn't give me what I wanted.. so so so...
ended up using the 50mm... though the range isn't better, but the bokeh blurness it gives is better =)

either way... let's begin shall we??

I'll try my best to teach you all a little from experience~ so we can all learn and improve together =)
first started out with this little fella walking on the ground.... you got wings leh why walk??

for shots like these, naturally you might just wanna stamp on the butterfly to make it flat like a bookmark~ but that's just cause you're seeing it from a high angle cause naturally you're taller than it, but sometimes going low and humbling yourself to it's own level can prove to be nicer, and can bring out some... quite okay shots~ this works well with children too, bring yourself to their level =)

Then again some might find it hard because lying on the floor is... well dirty, it's okay... just bring yourself as low as you can without breaking your back~~like how I'm doing it in the picture, might look retarded, the leg looks out, but then again... just get a good picture to show off so you don't look like free clown entertainment for the rest around you =)

Next one... butterfly on flower.... well for such a situation if you're tall, praise God~~

If you have my height... heh heh, just do you're best la, from a slightly lower angle also not bad geh, just try to get as close as you can, because the closer the main target is in your picture, the more geng chao the background blurness will become, the further the main target, the less blurness... why?? don't know... that's how the camera does things wan -_-this worked for me, but you might find other angles that works too~~
erm... flowers ah... I'm no fan of flowers, but mainly almost any angle will work, up down left right, etc.... depends on the flower too though...
=]
The red drunk butterfly =)
same thing goes la, find a right angle, get as close as you could... for me this was the closest I could get because not using a Macro lens, and this is the closest range my lens could give me~~
Then while we were walking... walk ah walk walk...Oooo, found something interesting =)
Biggie butterfly =)naturally these shaded parts would be hard to capture a clear shot because they have alot of shadows, and it's well hidden from the sun, so don't be ashamed to use the flash on your camera, just lower the power and it helps, you'd be amazed sometimes how much detail can pop out in the picture with a pop-up-flash~ =)

and you'd be amazed sometimes how much better it is than a big big flash~~
same goes, find the right angle, better if it's in the same height and same length~~=]and the rest is up to your own personal creativity~~
for this ah.... haha, well... if you see the albums of many others, they have alot of shots of butterflies stopping on their heads, hands, etc.. but for my case they just flew off whenever we got near them...

eventually found a dead one on the floor... then just put it on my hand and... oh.... I see... this is how you do it~ XD

You know, one way I've learned in taking pictures is to look at the pictures of other professionals, and from there, just think and wonder how they do it, and how you can do it too, you might be like me, unlucky or just the butterflies hate me, but what I could do was try to imitate the pictures they took, but with what I could and what I have...

I didn't have a tamed butterfly, I had a dead on~ but it works for me too XD
Just take pictures with the inspiration and ideas of others, and if you can, throw in a little of your own bits inside it~~
One simple tip... look around and be observant, there's always something to photograph, even in a place like Malaysia where there's nothing actually beautiful... you still can find something interesting and beautiful here if you looked hard enough... for this one... well let's say the little fella was hiding deep inside the bushes..
so if you looked hard enough... you'd be amazed in what you could find =)
What I've learned today??

It's more fun having others to accompany when taking pictures, I never actually liked others following along, just thinking that they might slow me down and stuff... but sometimes depending on the people, and having the opportunity of one another taking a picture of each other, you can find yourself smiling more looking at your own pictures and wonder like "eh? I did that?"

since you'll never even capture pictures of your own self in any pictures (unless you camwhore) so it's good to have others do it for you~ it's more fun compared to camwhoring =)

so... yeah company is good~ but I still like going around myself alone sometimes~~ gives me alot of time to myself =p

Anyways, the pictures were taken by Edryanne~

And yes, always good to put into practice what you have learned, so for myself... learn to do things in groups now, so thinking of finding a day to go back to Putrajaya again to capture some sunset to night shots~

If you don't know what is Putrajaya... well these were what I captured last year....
sunset...

to dark...

But that was last year, I think... yeah I THINK now I can do it better than before~ to see if I've improved or not...

Anyways... anyone interested....??

What you might need...

1. Tripod (a MUST for night shots)
2. Camera (anyone would do, but you must have those that can use a slow shutter, so handphones are out)
3. Food & Drinks (it might take awhile, and usually at that hour the food stalls there are closed, unless someone's planning mamak after that)

errr... not sure what else, think think and see la, will make a post about it to confirm~~ =)