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In the past few weeks I've been busy with my 2019 summer project "butterflies" for which I've made a few visits to 3 Zoos that have a so-called butterfly garden: Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam and Antwerp Zoo in Belgium. This project really gave me a lot of pleasure and it made me step out of my "comfort zone".
Part 1 of my 2019 summer project "butterflies" can be found here: BUTTERFLIES
In the butterfly gardens, with a fairly high temperature and humidity, you just walk among the butterflies and it therefore seems "very simple" to be able to photograph these animals, but nothing could be further from the truth! The butterflies fly continuously through the often high space and do not sit quietly on a leaf or flower until you have taken the photo! An additional problem is that almost all butterflies, especially the larger ones, keep the wings closed when they are sitting on a flower or leaf or...the wings contract when you take a photo, resulting in completely moved photos.
Working with a tripod or even a monopod is absolutely impossible, not only because of the large amount of visitors, but also because you just don't know where exactly a butterfly will sit on a leaf or flower. I think for every visitor a major disadvantage is also that it's not allowed to use flashlights, probably not for the behaviour of the butterflies, but to prevent dozens of visitors from being blinded by direct flash light.
In the meantime I have gathered information through all kinds of channels and discovered that there are around 45 (!) Butterfly gardens in the Netherlands, so I can continue to photograph butterflies for many years to come, at least if I want to...
Gerard
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Feeding places with bananas, oranges and grapefruits can be found in all butterfly gardens. In addition, there are special places where butterflies can find special (food) substances and the like on plastic flower-shaped panels.
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Part 1 of my 2019 summer project "butterflies" can be found here: BUTTERFLIES
In the butterfly gardens, with a fairly high temperature and humidity, you just walk among the butterflies and it therefore seems "very simple" to be able to photograph these animals, but nothing could be further from the truth! The butterflies fly continuously through the often high space and do not sit quietly on a leaf or flower until you have taken the photo! An additional problem is that almost all butterflies, especially the larger ones, keep the wings closed when they are sitting on a flower or leaf or...the wings contract when you take a photo, resulting in completely moved photos.
Working with a tripod or even a monopod is absolutely impossible, not only because of the large amount of visitors, but also because you just don't know where exactly a butterfly will sit on a leaf or flower. I think for every visitor a major disadvantage is also that it's not allowed to use flashlights, probably not for the behaviour of the butterflies, but to prevent dozens of visitors from being blinded by direct flash light.
In the meantime I have gathered information through all kinds of channels and discovered that there are around 45 (!) Butterfly gardens in the Netherlands, so I can continue to photograph butterflies for many years to come, at least if I want to...
Gerard
View attachment 178368
View attachment 178369
View attachment 178370
View attachment 178371
View attachment 178374
View attachment 178375
View attachment 178376
View attachment 178377
View attachment 178378
Feeding places with bananas, oranges and grapefruits can be found in all butterfly gardens. In addition, there are special places where butterflies can find special (food) substances and the like on plastic flower-shaped panels.
View attachment 178372
View attachment 178373
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