Recently, my wife and I decided to try our luck at moth photography. Experience has taught us that success at this endeavor is just a matter of being in the right spot at the right time, equipped with the right equipment.
Over the years, we have been photographing Carolina Sphinx moths feeding at four-o‘clock blossoms at dusk. We have several small patches of these perennial plants growing in our backyard. We planted them close to the house because we enjoy their colorful, trumpet shaped flowers and the hummingbirds and moths they attract.
On this particular night, I did not go outside until it was very late in the afternoon. In fact, hummingbirds were still feeding at nearby hummer feeders as we stepped into our backyard. This provided us with the opportunity to photograph a hummingbird feeding on the nectar found in four o’ clock blossoms before the moths arrived. Unfortunately, on this particular late afternoon, the hummingbirds were content to feed on sugar water.
My wife was equipped with a smart phone, and I carried my Nikon D-7500 35mm camera.
We had our cameras poised as we checked out patches of yellow and bright pink four-o’ clocks. For several minutes, no moths appeared. Then, suddenly a large sphinx moth flew in and began probing the flowers. Since the moth was constantly moving, it seemed that every time we got ready to snap a photo is flew away.
After vainly trying to snap photos of this month, four other moths flew in. This greatly increased the odds that we would capture one in a photograph. With that in mind, each of us just stood still near a stand of four o’ clocks and waited for the moths to come to us.
As the afternoon faded into night, we kept taking as many pictures as we could before calling it a night.
When we returned to the house, we evaluated our results. My wife was not happy with any of her photos. While most of the shots I took were not very good, a few turned out great. One of these shots accompanies this blog.
We both set our cameras on automatic. After the session was over, I found that the camera took my photos at F/4.5, 1/60th of a second, and an ISO of 2500.
We always enjoy our forays to try to photograph moths. However, next time we are going to apply insect repellent before we venture outside.
If you decide to try your hand at moth photography, don’t become discouraged it you do not immediately enjoy success. You simply have to find what works best for you. Once you discover this secret, you will find your efforts to photograph moths very rewarding.
