As I traveled through the warmth of winter from south Florida to south west Arizona during Jan to May, my predominate photographic perspective was forced to change.  I usually have my 100-400mm telephoto lens on my camera and they’re in my hands and preset.  That way I’m ready to capture subjects up to 50 yards or so away or flowers in a range of 3 to 5 feet from the lens in an instant.  No fumbling with camera bag zippers, figuring out settings or camera dials.  Macro subjects which were right under my nose all the time were usually overlooked as my eyes almost unconsciously searched from left to right and behind for that impact photo. My telephoto lens stopped auto focusing, so I switched to my 180mm closeup lens as my #1 and a new world of nature’s exhibits came into view.  Flowers laden with visitors loading up on its nectar, hummingbirds and other spectacles within inches to ten yards or so became my subjects.  I got a new and fresh look at the world.  See, change is good; especially, when the old ceases to work.  (Once home, Canon, the manufacturer of my 100-400 lens, fixed it for free.)
    The change fell right in to one of the themes of my meanderings - “adapt or go home.”  Home was where it was cold, so adapt I did. My February sanctuary has been invaded by seekers of a free warm place when it’s cold in the north. I used to be one of the few people camping there in the Everglades in Big Cypress at Bear Island in February, but now the Park Service Visitor Center on US Rt. 41, the Tamiami Trail, liberally tells all that they can camp at Bear Island for free and there is no time limit.  Now there’s a small village of people enjoying the sunshine when it’s snowing at home! Who can blame them? Not me, I’m there, too, and been there for 11 Februaries in a row and plan to make it #12. The village causes me to have to get up a little earlier, walk a little farther to get away from the people, and to be where the bears, panthers, owls and wood ducks, orchids, and other wild life are at that most people never see in there life.
    There, and other places I went, butterflies were Mother Nature’s special display. Their brilliant colors with a flower and/or the blue sky in the background made a striking contrast resulting in gorgeous photos. My travels took me from the Keys and the everglades with pink thistle flowers and several varieties of butterflies on Perocchi Grade Trail, to S. Padre Island, Tex., and butterflies on sunflowers near the Spring Breakers beach; Big Bend N.P., Tex. with a butterfly perched on a red ocotillo cacti flower; Organ Pipes Cactus N.M., Ariz.; Buenos Aires N.W.R., Ariz.; and many places in between.  More butterfly and macro pics @: http://picasaweb.google.com/o.c.fotoguy2009. Are these photos of butterflies Monarch, Viceroy or SwallowTail?  And that black one with orange and white spots…… umh???  If you can figure it out, let me know.  http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nw4.htm or http://travel.mongabay.com/topics/butterflies_and_moths.html may help.
    Stopping the motion of the butterfly’s wings was necessary to show all the colors distinctly.  To do this I used a Canonon Rebel xti, the 180mm macro/closeup lens at ISO/ASA 100, a shutter speed of at least 1/350 and as small an Fstop as possible using Tv (shutter speed priority) mode, and usually F8 to 16.  Since I’ve been back in Ocean City, I’ve read in the photo tech magazines that the new model digital cameras have solved the noise (grain) problem. They say shutter speeds of 1/2,500 and up can be used with no problem. This means a much higher ASA can be used resulting in the opportunity to use shutter exceeding 1/1,000 – 3,500 and the top end of Fstop sharpness of 32.  Plus, they say that a full sized sensor, usually in the top end expensive cameras, may not be necessary. The prosumer (higher quality & technology than a point & shoot one like the Canon Rebel XSi or Nikon D5000 both about $700 with lens) cameras with an APS sized sensor has a greater concentration of pixels in their smaller images caused by the “telephoto effect” of that size sensor! With the technology that is changing so fast, making this month’s models much better than last month’s, why buy the top end one that’ll be out-dated shortly.  Save some $$$. I do and my photos are fine. You can get more info about sensor size and noise/grain @ popphoto.com (Popular Photography Magazine) and putting the key word in the search box.
    I took time out of what has turned into a very busy family photo on the beach season to go kayaking and harvest some Turville Creek mussels (just steam them in enough water to cover them til the shells open - very tasty! I even added them as a topping to my home made pizza - wow!), and snapped a couple pictures of O.C. from across the Assawoman Bay.
    If you’d like to set up a family photo on the beach, give me a call at 410-289-7339 and check out my webpage at: PHOTOSAsYouWantThem.biz.  Have Fun!