Flutterbys...

A cold winter's day and the start of school holidays was not the best time of year to visit Butterfly Creek. There were people everywhere! The walkway was almost constantly shuddering which I could feel all the way up the monopod and into the camera. Add to that I was using my newest lens and had no idea what settings I needed it on to achieve usable shots and you can just imagine my frustration. That is, until I worked out the magic formula. After that almost every shot I took worked.

More from Butterfly Creek

On the way into the butterfly house there is a walkway that is pretty much in darkness. I assume the dark is to discourage the butterflies from escaping as they like the light and will avoid flying into the dark should the door be left open. I might be wrong but it does sorta make sense. Anyway along this short dark corridor are fresh water and salt water aquariums.

Each time I go to Butterfly Creek I have a go at photographing the fish. Most times I end up with a heap of blurred photos that do anything but resemble fish. This time however I managed to get it right. Please note I was not carrying a tripod which one would normally use in such low light situations.

I turned on the on camera flash and focused on something that wasn't moving in the hope that a moving fish would just happen to land in the shot. This only worked because of the image stabilizer in the lens that I was using. It helped to keep the camera steady and the flash helped with the faster shutter speed. I shot maybe a dozen photos of the fish and of that dozen I am happy with about 8 of them. A pretty good hit rate!

Butterfly Creek

The plan for our last morning in Auckland was to go to the zoo, but the weather didn't play nice so we ended up indoors at Butterfly Creek. I have been there a few times now and each time I think I have managed to improve the images I take. This trip I concentrated on getting good backgrounds that didn't require any photoshopping to correct. I am not great at fixing up backgrounds, so it's better if I shoot them right in the first place.

It was extremely hot when we first entered the enclosure, all the heaters were on and pushing heat directly down on us. Eventually the heaters went off and things became a little more comfortable. Definitely a useful place on a cold winters day! We spent about an hour with the butterflies before heading out to the cafe for lunch and a looksee at what we had shot so far.

The second stint back in the heat was somewhat harder, not just for me but for all of us. We were still in recovery mode from the day at the island, and the night of wine that followed, so were all a bit tired. We shot some more photos, saw a bunch of brand new butterflies released and then headed off to the airport for our flight home. It had been a good trip despite the weather.

Displaying photos

In the past if we wanted to display our photos we would get them developed and then carefully put them into a photo album for safe keeping. Over the years we would accumulate many albums each covering a stage in our lives that was important. These days however with digital photo files our options are far greater.

There are digital frames where you can have a selection of images rotating through at 3 or 4 second intervals. How awesome is that? Each time you take some new images you can change what is in your frame so that it is always displaying the most current photos. You can get your favourite photos printed on teeshirts, caps, teatowels, jigsaws, calendars, mugs, bags and even birthday cakes, and it doesn't stop there! There are way too many options for me to list them all here.

I am enjoying the ability to produce my own photobooks. I have photographed several family events and then created hard cover photobooks as a record of the event. The books become something that can be left on the coffee table, or in the bookcase and are not going to fade with age the way a photo does. And we are totally spoilt for choice as to where to get our photobooks from. I have tried several different websites that produce them and have two or three sites that I use often. Certainly worth giving it a go, the software is free and the prices are usually quite reasonable.