Photo
project "The Rare Skipper"
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Northern Chequered Skipper
(Carterocephalus silvicolus),
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Northern Chequered
Skipper is
one of Denmark´s really rare butterflies. It can only be found in
one or two woods in Lolland. But it is not rarer than it actually can
be found, if you go to the right places. Other rare butterflies can only
be found by sheer luck.
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So
I decided to find and photograph it. I had found it on the locality 20 years
ago in my collecting days, and it was quite interesting to revisit it. I
flew at excatly the same place, on the same 50 m of the moist forest road
as 20 years before. |
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When I arrived to
the place, it was there. I scared off a female from a plant at the edge
of the forest road, and followed it into the bushes, till it rested again.
It was a fine specimen, and the first photos were taken. Unfortunately
it disappered before I could take a close-up series.
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt,
Lolland 14. juni 06
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Small
and difficult motive |
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Skippers
rest with their wings at an angle. That is not making it easier for the
Photographer, as you need a wide dof to keep them sharp at both wings edges
as well as on the head and body. I therefore had set the aperture to 9.
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As you can see at
the photos, aperture 9 is not enough. You will have to take the skipper
either from the front or from an angle behind it to place it fully in
the dof.
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These
pictures lack details, because I had also set the iso at 1600. Back then
it was my way to prevent camera stirr by keeping the shutterspeed up. It
won´t work, I found out. It is better to use a monopod or a tripod
and a low iso. |
Noise
can be removed from the photo and you can relatively easy smoothen out the
background of the photo, but you can not create delicate details in hairs
and shadows where the sensor has been activated by random noise. |
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Sortplettet
bredpande, Søholt, Lolland 14. juni 06
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Habitat |
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The Northern Chequered
Skipper lives in moist woods in Lolland. I have only seen it one place,
and I shall
try to describe the habitat on this meagre background:
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The
habitat is relatively open wood with many different kinds of trees and a
thriving diverse underground vegetation of semi high plants. The habitat
appears both moist and dry. The soil is made of clay and there is a lake
nearby. Where the lower areas are drained to the lake, its rather dry and
where they are not, it becomes moist. |
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The
Northern Chequered Skipper flies between shadow and light under the trees
and rests on plants and leaves about 50 cm above the ground. It is easy
to spot and does not fly far away when it is scared. I it is not very shy
either and it is easy to get close to it. |
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So
all in all it a nice little insect to work with. |
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Habitat,
Søholt, Lolland
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Male,
Female, upperside, underside and splendour |
The
Male |
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The
Northern Chequered Skipper was rather numerous at the habitat. I think I
saw 20 specimens. They were easy to approach, both males and females. There
were specimens at all ages and they showed a wide range of variation.. |
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That is good. Variation
in the population is a sign of a wide gene pool and makes good hope for
the future fate of the colony.
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt, Lolland 14. juni
06.
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt, Lolland 14. juni
06.
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Underside
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I
wanted a photo of the underside. I was not so easy. |
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Here
I have entered a muddy ditch and have sneaked in under a resting male. I
photograph towards the light. It makes a fine glow in the wings but it wont
provide details in the "feathers" |
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt, Lolland 14. juni
06.
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Female |
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Two
females and a Speckled Wood |
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt,
Lolland 14. juni 06.
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt,
Lolland 14. juni 06
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Splendour....
Not much |
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I would have wanted
a picture of The Northern Chequered Skipper in conflict with a spider
or resting on a colourful flower with dew, or face to face with a bird.
I have not any such. Even the close-ups are not very fine. I shall have
to go agin.
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The
photo to the left clearly shows the lack of details due to a high iso
setting. You can see,
that the hairs on the leaf and the skipper are all white in a shaken way,
there are no soft shades in gray and the hairs seem to be broken into
a row of cubes.The antennas show no joints and scales and textures are
not visible on the wings or the abdomen.
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Northern
Chequered Skipper, Søholt,
Lolland 14. juni 06.
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The
skipper in its Envionment |
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The
Northern Chequered Skipper,
Søholt, Lolland 14. juni 06
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Besides close-up photos
and portraits you will need some pictures of the butterfly in it´s
envionment. Ferns are always good, they can nearly fill the photo by themselves
because of their delicate and interesting foilage. Here the butterfly
in the foreground is composed into a corresponding background that shows
the same patterns and colour shades as the foreground.
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