I am still learning to take videos with my iPhone 11. During my recent road trip, I convinced myself that it could be used with large subjects like bison and wild horses. I wasn’t sure, however, if it could be used effectively with the small subjects that I enjoy photographing.
Yesterday I visited Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my favorite local wildlife photography spot, and kept my iPhone in my front pants pocket—normally I keep it in my backpack, which it is much less accessible. I was still using my Canon 7D with the Tamron 18-400mm zoom lens most of the time, but I made a conscious effort to look for subjects that I could also film with my iPhone.
I was astonished when I encountered a relatively cooperative Zebra Swallowtail butterfly (Eurytides marcellus). Normally these butterflies are extremely skittish and it is a challenge to get a photo of one, even with a long telephoto lens. How could I make a video of one when I would have to be really close to it?
The first video, which is hosted in YouTube, is a short clip I was able to capture of a Zebra Swallowtail. I added a piano track as accompaniment to enhance the experience.
The second video features an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) feeding on a colorful thistle plant. This video was a bit easier to capture, because the butterfly was perched much higher and was really preoccupied. I was therefore able to frame the video much better. Once again I added piano music to the video, using the copyright free music available in the YouTube Studio.
As I mentioned in a previous posting, I have chosen to embed YouTube links to the videos rather than place them directly in my blog, where they would count against the blog’s data limits. In order to have an image appear for this posting in the Reader section of WordPress, I have reprised an image of a Zebra Swallowtail that was in a May 2022 posting.
I am having fun playing with videos and think they give a slightly different perspective to my normal blog postings. What do you think? Do you enjoy these kinds of short video clips?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Delightful – thank you! 🙂
I loved the videos. Thank you Mike. Excellent job!
Absolutely stunning butterflies! I love the zebra!!
Very nice Mike! Enjoyed the videos!
Videos are great. Thanks Mike.
Thanks, Michelle. It is fun to play around with taking videos, but I feel like a complete neophyte when I do so. I know what I am doing when taking still photos, but often feel clueless when trying to take a video.
Photos and videos can complement one another, so I think you should do both when the subject matter is appropriate.
Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. So far I have just been experimenting, but I will work on trying to integrate the videos with my photos in the complementary way that you suggest.
I like the little videos but I have to actually visit the blog to see them. They don’t appear in the email.
I hadn’t thought about it, Nina, but the way that I embedded the YouTube links in the blog posting makes them act more like a link, which is why you could not see them in the e-mailed version. Sorry.
I couldn’t see the links, either. There was just the one photograph. I clicked on Comment to go to the blog because I figured they would show up there. Somebody else might miss them entirely. I don’t know how to make it easier for us email subscribers.
They were embedded links, which is why they were “invisible.” I will try to remember to also insert regular links the next time I attempt to link videos. Thanks for the feedback, Nina, that helps to remind me that different folks view the postings on different devices in different ways.