Pink and Red Postman Longwing Butterflies Mating

A mating pair of Postman Longwing Butterly (Heliconius melpomene) landed on top of a laminated print pinned on a wall. It wasn’t an ideal spot for a tripod, so i have to take the shot against my will — hand-hold. I don’t normally do macro with the Canon 180mm lens without a support. It’s weighty optics and doesn’t come equipped with an Image Stabilizer.

My goal was aligning the subjects in focus plane as flat as possible with shallow focus so both the foreground, background and print are completely blurred out. Without a support, it was a challenge in a rather low light environment.

I can’t recall what’s that distanced white circle behind it but very happy how it turned out considering the low shutter speed of 1/160s and i have to lean over stair rail with one foot up to support myself. It’s even perfectly leveled! The end product looks as if it’s process of a graphic art, but in fact just few minutes of basic raw adjustments on color and contrast. The postures of the butteries from legs to abdomens and heads position are very satisfactory.