Back to photostream

Problems and Solutions - _TNY_1858

When shooting butterflies at the Haga Ocean butterfly house in Solna, Sweden, I can't use a flash as it is prohibited. This means either using high ISO (whcih I don't like) or circumventing the problem with a tripod (which works great). The thing with tripod photography is that pressing the shutter release induces shake so I want to use a wired shutter release.

 

I have one of those, but the thing is that it only works occasionally which is very annoying and forcing me to use the camera's self-timer with either a 2 or a 10 second delay.

 

The butterfly in this photo is a rusty-tipped page (Siproeta epaphus) and it is fairly obvious where it got that name from. In German, this one is called " Schokoladenfalter" which I really like as well as it means "chocolate butterfly".

 

Anyways, after taking this shot, I was hoping to get another one with the wings closed but since the wired shutter was not working again, I went with the self-timer and I watched it count down from 10 and whe it came to 2 - the butterfly opened the wings again.

 

When I got home, I started looking for replacement wired shutter-release and then I sort of stumbled on the solution: The camera has to be turned off when the wire is connected! If I connect it, take a shot and then wait too long before taking the next shot so the camera goes into standby - it won't work when I wake it up again. It needs to be switchd off completely in-between shots.

 

While I'm glad to have found a solution, I can't help thinking this is poor engineering on Canon''s part. Why make standby mode effectively meaningless when shooting with a wired shutter release?

 

Here is another shot of this one from a different angle: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52719788021/

878 views
19 faves
68 comments
Uploaded on March 8, 2023
Taken on February 28, 2023