sdgt,

"I have a question for you all.  What techniques / tricks do you use when shooting against a very bright background?"

Well, there is little you need to change in the way of composition, DoF, focus, etc.! You definitely had the right equipment, and right eye, at the right time!

As for a lack of contrast, RAW is your friend. Without going into too much detail here, you can only use a good lens, shoot in RAW, DoF, and good sensor when shooting. None of this will change contrast (well, DoF can, but only if your subject is at a different distance to your camera than the distractions).

What will is post-processing, where you can use tools like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW to bring out the subtleties your eye say in your images. Trust me, there is enough information captured in your sensor to bring thoe little guys right out of their backgrounds, and still be "honest" to the image (whatever that is supposed to mean!). You can darken by area, and even color ranges, to get your butterflies to come right off the image, just the way you saw them when you shot them.

For examples, look in the 2008/2009 Shutterbug Digital Photography How-To Guide. It is packed with ways you can use layers to accentuate the subject, and not distract the viewer's eye. See their website (<a href="http://www.shutterbug.com">www.shutterbug.com</a>) for a ton of tips, tricks and tutorials online!

Lovely butterflies and moths.

You all come back to Ames sometime, hear?