‘Sensational Butterflies’ at the Natural History Museum

I’ve always had a strong emotional attachment to the Natural History Museum in London – when I was younger I used to visit all the time, and I absolutely adore its grand, gothic exterior.  So while on a rare trip to the city centre last weekend, I took the opportunity to pop into the museum.

A temporary exhibition, ‘Sensational Butterflies‘, had been set up in the gardens at the front of the museum.  The large plastic butterfly house was aimed more at children, but I couldn’t resist spending a little time photographing the inhabitants.

I hadn’t dressed particularly colourfully that day so I wasn’t much of a butterfly-magnet – unlike some of the kids in the exhibition who wandered around covered head-to-toe in the insects.  One stubborn little fellow did seem to be curiously attracted to my camera viewfinder and flash mount, which made photographing the others a bit of a challenge.

Unfortunately for various reasons I’d only brought my 450D and kit lens down with me so the image quality isn’t stellar, and on a few occasions I struggled with low light.  Having said that, the 18-55 performs surprisingly well as a ‘faux macro’ lens – it has a decent maximum magnification of 0.34x, and the bokeh’s not half-bad.

In any case, it was an entertaining half-hour and well worth the £4.50 entrance fee.  I spend most of time shooting landscape, so it was a nice break from my usual diet of lakes and mountains!