Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
No summer is complete without the appearance of butterflies in the yard. After some much needed rain earlier this week the numbers suddenly went up and it wasn’t difficult to spot quite a few. The master of the show for me is often the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. The female in the photo above took a little time on each purple cone flower and gave me some good opportunities to point the lens at her. Other than the Giant Swallowtails. Three of them were feeding in the flower bed in front of the house erratically with fast beating wings. A fast shutter speed is key for freezing the action and getting a sharp shot.
I’m not a real macro photographer but still like some storytelling about summer with butterflies or other insects and often try to include a bit of their habitat.
Giant Swallowtails
For the first time I used the Nikon Nikkor Z 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S lens for this kind of shooting. Very little or no cropping is a big benefit for me. The zoom range of the lens allows to go wider quickly if a scene requires it, while 400mm gives you enough distance to stay away and not disturb the insect.
Red Admiral
Giant Swallowtail
All images: Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S