Iron Butterfly @ For-Mar

I'm certainly not a butterfly expert.  Only two things I can think of go with butterflies:  Iron and Effect.
I'm not sure if this is iron or not, but it is metal - not plastic.  Close enough for me.  The For-Mar Nature Preserve is less than five miles from the house.  The last time I've been there was a few years ago.  I really do need to get out more.

http://geneseecountyparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GCP_ForMar.jpg

When I arrived at the Preserve, there was a sign that said Treehouse to the left, Butterfly House to the right.  I've seen the treehouse before.  Off to the Butterfly House.  Or the frame of the Butterfly House.  I almost walked past it.  It is a large frame that looks like a temporary greenhouse that would be covered with a heavy plastic tarp.  And now that we're in November, it is open air.  No butterflies.
To mark the house is a metal sculpture of a butterfly.  It is very nice.  I don't know enough about sculpting to offer any assessment other than, Hey - It's nice.  
But I know slightly more about the photo.  Wasn't easy.  It is dark.  On a sunny day.  Lot's of dynamic range between the sky and the underside of the sculpture.  I tried a few tricks in ACR, but noting came out that I liked.  When all else fails, I go to Photomatix.
Even though Photomatix has improved over the years to a most excellent program, there are still signs of HDR processing in this shot if you know to look for them.  I gave up the overblown processing a long time ago, it was fun while it lasted.  I use Photomatix these days only when I need more light balance that Photoshop will do, or when it will take a lot of time to balance the levels.  Call me lazy.  
In this case, some of the lesser settings in Photomatix gave a very nice image, but I just couldn't pull enough color definition on the sculpture underside that I wanted.  And to get what I wanted, made it look HDRish.  Moral of the story, get the shot right the first time.  Or next time.  I think the next time out would involve a tri-pod and a multiple shots HDR effort.  I also removed some distractions on the left, most notably the frame of the Butterfly House.  So next time out, frame it a bit better.  And a lesson for for general knowledge, look at the background.  It's easier to take two steps to the left than to spend time with artifact removal.

Iron Butterfly

NIKON D850 Ver.1.11/Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR

27 mm, 1/400 sec, f/4.0,  ISO 64 (AUTO)

EV0, MANUAL Mode, Size FX

For the next time, not sure what the DOF should be either.  It is tough to tell the subject is in focus, and the trees are blurry enough to be thought of as out of focus.  The colors of the trees and subject just give the eyes enough of a color break to help with distance.  In the end, not bad for a mistake.