Saturday, July 4, 2009

Using the Zoom for Zoomers

My last post was in praise of my point-and-shoot camera's macro function. This one shows something of what its zoom function can do. Even though it's not as good as those on "real" cameras, it sure comes in handy when flighty critters come by.

Like this American Painted Lady butterfly. I stalked it and stalked it and each time I got it in focus it fluttered away. So finally I wised up and stood back and used my zoom from 15 feet away. It worked pretty well.


My zoom didn't work quite so well to capture this Hummingbird Moth. But then, who's would? This little critter's wings never stop, and it darts zip! zip! zip! most erratically, so where to point the camera was quite the problem. At least with these images, you can see it was there.




On the other hand, this guy just sat there, munching away on hazelnut clusters. (Anybody know his name?) At first I used my zoom, then moved in, and when he didn't move a mite, ended up using my macro after all. Here's looking at you, kid.



2 comments:

suep said...

UN-believable! These are views taken by the proverbial "fly-on-the-wall" that people always say they'd like to be.
The hummingbird moth is spectacular - love his shaggy little tail section.
This is still-hunting at its best.

Ellen Rathbone said...

I believe it is a kind of shield bug fondly called a Stink Bug (Family Pentatomidae) because it exudes a foul smell when disturbed. Most are herbivores, but a few are predaceous