When butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, they can't move for about two hours. They pump body fluids through their wings to expand them, and at this time it's easy to take macro shots at small apertures for depth of field. This is the Queen Alexandra birdwing butterfly native to New Guinea. I photographed it in the butterfly house I bring my photo tour groups to in Bali, Indonesia (a fabulous place to shoot). Even though I use a small aperture, to maximize depth of field with macro subjects I make the back of the camera, i.e. the plane of the digital sensor, as parallel as possible with the plane of the wings. My settings for this shot were 1/8, f/32, and 200 ISO. I used a tripod for the exposure. I thought about replacing the background because the mottled, vertical lines of bamboo aren't especially attractive. I just haven't done it yet.
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