Backyard Butterflies

It took long enough for summer to get into full swing here in Germany. And now that it's finally here our backyard has been full of butterflies. Ariana has learned to gently catch them and put them in her bug box to study and observe.

The other afternoon she had up to 5 butterflies in her box that she caught all by herself. 

Of course for me it was the perfect time to break out my macro and take some shots. After a little while we set them free but boy did she have fun catching and watching them!

These were taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 105mm/f2.8G macro lens.

We discovered that macro shots of a butterfly makes them look kind of alien in the face.

 I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get their eyes more in focus no matter how I angled the camera, what aperture I used or where I focused. 

Fellow photographers, any tips?

The little yellow one was my favorite to photograph.
Ariana had such a good time playing outside. So happy I'm getting this quality summertime fun with my girlie!