Hummingbird Moth on Milk Thistle

We went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania to go through their 86 acre Meadow Gardens. It is more known for their Formal Gardens and Conservatory, but we enjoy the Meadows. With more than three miles of walking and hiking trails which lead visitors to the diverse habitats found throughout the Meadow Gardens terrain. I found a few Hummingbird Moths working an area with a lot of Milk Thistles. I raised the ISO to 1250 and was shooting at 1/500 sec to 1/1000 sec, and a few above that, but could still not capture their wings. They were really fast movers, but they really liked these Thistles so they stayed for quite a while. They were darting back and forth so their was little time to compose and shoot before they darted off to another spot. They were still fun to photograph. Next time I could try fill flash, but they move so quickly it would be limiting because of the recycling time of the flash. All shots handheld, shot with a 300mm lens with extension tubes to get closer. These moths seem to be super active and non-stop movers!

hummingbird-moth-v3-lg-2016__43g1771    hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016_43g1739  hummingbird-moth-v4-lg-2016__43g1723  hummingbird-moth-v3-lg-2016__43g1721  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016__43g1750  hummingbird-moth-v3-lg-2016__43g1742  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016__43g1740  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016__43g1809  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016__43g1806  hummingbird-moth-v1-lg-2016__43g1760  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016__43g1760  hummingbird-moth-v1-lg-2016_43g1878  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016_43g1870  hummingbird-moth-v2a-lg-2016_43g1953  hummingbird-moth-v2-lg-2016_43g1905

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth On Butterfly Bush

This Hummingbird Clearwing Moth seems to like this Butterfly Bush. It keeps coming back, day after day, spending about  5 minutes at a time. I cannot get very close, otherwise it flies off, so I am about 15 feet away. I am using a 400mm lens, with a 1.4X teleconverter, on a Canon 1.3X crop camera body. After adjusting files in Adobe Camera Raw, I use a fairly severe crop. Even so I thought they came out with quite a bit of detail. I also had to use a High Shutter Speed with a High ISO to stop the wing movement as best I could.

_43G6998 pond hummingbird moth v2

_43G6961 pond hummingbird moth v1

_43G6956 pond hummingbird moth v2

_43G6958 pond hummingbird moth v3 port

_43G6949 pond hummingbird moth v4
_43G6942 pond hummingbird moth v2

_43G6943 pond hummingbird moth v2

_43G6923 pond hummingbird moth v4

 

%d bloggers like this: