Brown Ringlet

Brown Ringlet - Hypocysta metirius

I photographed a number of Brown Ringlets while I was up at the Barrington Tops. Since I was out early almost every morning I managed to photograph them while they warmed up in the early morning sun. Due to the fact that they were still "warming up", I was able to get really close to the butterfly. Having the 100-400mm lens on also helped.

More images after the jump.

Brown Ringlet - Hypocysta metirius

The Brown Ringlet is a small butterfly and has a wingspan of around 55mm. I would have liked to get a bit closer to photograph them but was restricted by the minimum focusing distance on the 100-400mm lens. It would have been good to use the 100mm lens to photograph them but I didn't want to missout by going indoors to change the lens,

Brown Ringlet - Hypocysta metirius

I'm not sure how other photographers set about photographing butterflies. Do they approach butterflies once they settle on a plant or do they set up hides and wait for the butterfly to settle? The second option could be time consuming and may lead to people "baiting" the butterflies. I've never baited animals for photography before and I am not too keen to start it now.  What do you guys think?

Brown Ringlet - Hypocysta metirius

All photographs on this post were captured with the Canon 7D and the 100-400mm lens.