How to photograph butterflies and moths for LepiMAP - http://vmus.adu.org.za/

1. How To Photograph
BUTTERFLIES and MOTHS
Megan Loftie-Eaton – Animal Demography Unit – University of Cape Town

2. STEP 1
You need a camera, of course , BUT you
don’t have to have a macro lens or an
expensive camera in order to take photos of
butterflies and moths.
A normal “point-and-shoot” will work just fine
(even a cell phone camera) – depending on
which species, and the size, of butterfly/moth
you are photographing
If you do have a DSLR camera and a macro lens
(normal kit lenses work great as well), you will
probably get better photos, but these are not
necessary for the purpose of LepiMAPping 

3. STEP 2
Butterflies are more active during the hotter
times of the day, and you can usually find them
around the higher lying areas of a landscape (this
is known as “hill topping”) – the key words for
photographing butterflies are: patience, patience,
patience!
Moths are active at night - so a good way to
attract them in for a photo-shoot is to leave your
outdoor lights on. Soon you will have lots of
moths sitting on the wall waiting for their picture
to be taken (moths are more obliging than
butterflies when it comes to having their picture
taken)
Try to get a close-up shot of the butterfly/moth –
this is important for identification purposes

4. STEP 3
If possible, try to get an upperwing as well as an underwing shot – this helps a
great deal with species identification!
Upperwing
Underwing

5. STEP 4
To get your photo LepiMAP ready, please crop it to have the butterfly/moth in
the centre of the photo and resize the photo so that it is no bigger than 1 Mb in
size (JPEG format)

6. STEP 5
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You can now make your awesome photos count for
biodiversity conservation by submitting them to LepiMAP through the Animal
Demography Unit’s Virtual Museum website at http://vmus.adu.org.za and here
is how: http://www.slideshare.net/meganloftieeaton/how-to-submit-records-tothe-animal-demography-units-virtual-museums-28710898