Monarch Caterpillar Macros

Yesterday I traveled to my Master Gardener friend’s butterfly garden near Paola, Kansas, for some photography. Today’s post includes a few of the images I captured of a single, Monarch Butterfly caterpillar that was busy feeding on a Milkweed plant. The caterpillar was very small, maybe 3/4-inch long at best. Here are my favorites images from the morning:

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

I particularly enjoyed photographing this small caterpillar, mainly due to the excellent background that I shot against. In macro photography, often the background is at least as important as the subject. When you can get a wonderfully out-of-focus background, it makes for a very fun day of shooting!

Coming up … more caterpillar species from this exquisite garden!

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 7D Mark II body
  • Canon 180mm f/3.5 macro lens
  •  Bogen 3221 tripod, with ballhead
  • ISO 200 (all photos)
  • Aperture f/3.5 (photos #1, #3), f/8 (photo #2), and f/6.7 (photo #4)
  • Shutter 1/500 sec. (top photo), 1/125 sec. (photo #2), 1/350 (photo #3) and 1/180 sec. (bottom photo)

 

 

Posted in Butterfly Photography, Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography
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