Good Day and happy Monday. While in Ames for Thanksgiving I decided to go out to Iowa State University’s Reiman Gardens. I wanted to go because a friend of mine had told me about how wonderful it was and because I wanted to try to capture some images of butterflies.
Reiman Gardens sits right next door to Jack Trice Football Stadium. There is an $8 charge to get in and you have to take this short lesson on what you can and can’t do in the butterfly garden.
I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by the lack of friendliness of the staff. I guess I expected people to warm and welcoming and that is not what I encountered. When the one woman saw my camera she demanded to know if I was taking pictures for personal use or professional use.
Once you go through the first doors of the garden you are met by another person who explains the rules to you all over again. Finally I was allowed in. It is a tropical climate inside with plants and greenery growing everywhere. Butterflies are fluttering about everywhere you look.
I found it very difficult to capture images of the butterflies. You are not allowed to take a tripod into the garden so it is hard to get a macro lens on the butterfly. The other thing I noticed was when I shot with a flash it tended to blow out the highlights of the wings. So I raised the ISO and tried it without the flash.
I did use a macro lens on some of the images I captured but it was a challenge. The other challenge is that you are restricted to the walk way and some of the butterflies didn’t follow the rules. 🙂 Still I don’t want to sound all negative. It was a fun experience.
I don’t know anything about butterflies or the different species that I encountered. I know there were some really spectacular looking butterflies and some that were just ugly.
More tomorrow on my adventure at Reiman Gardens. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Monday. Be careful.
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