Rise of the Monarch

Wow! This is fabulous, Gary!! Colors, comp and detail, perfected! You and Howard have got this down!!! Great work!

Unbelievable Gary, Wow what a shot. I just sat down and logged on and this photo was the first to pop up. I think he BG looks fine, not to soft for me. Great job capturing the butterfly in flight.

Excellent flight shot, Gary. Looks like you've been taking lessons from Howard! Yes, parts of the BF are a bit soft but not so much that it detracts from the overall impact of the image.

Excellent action shot. Well done Gary.

I see neither disturbing softness nor distracting noise. Nice shutter finger work there to freeze the BF in that position, and I really like the comp. Colours and bg are great too. Excellent!

Wow, the detail on the butterfly is outstanding with all the antennae, etc. visible. Great capture.

Gary if you ask me, you were lucky to get the butterfly hovering over a perfect perch, I was trying to look for this over last two weekends and failed like anything. The butterflies simply loved the cluttered flowers more, guess I chose the wrong place to shoot them. Now, my point is that you mentioned about pumping up the ISO to attain faster shutter speed, imagine you doing the reverse. Go for extremely slow shutter speed, which makes only the colors of the butterfly visible, making it an abstract flight or with relatively slow shutter speed to get the beautiful motion blur ( outlines would be blurred, the colors would then define the butterfly instead of the shape ). I think that would have made an image memorable for life. This is good too, just thought of discussing another way of viewing. In case you wish to try that, and you use a flash too, plz do not forget to switch it to slow sync. Try both curtains. My thoughts though.

Nilanjan: Yes, luck is a factor in making this shot. But your luck improves with perseverance! I have been trying to get butterfly in flight for many months before this shot. Actually I had a lot of blurred BF shots when I first started and they just look like blobs and the most memorable thing about those shots was pressing the delete button. I have no experience with flash photography so I don't even know where to start. But I know you are very adept with tricky lighting - may be it would work for you. There have been several posts of DF in flight using flash. Even with the right equipment, you still have to be at the right place at the right time - so hang in there and with a bit of perseverance, you too will get an image you will be happy with. Good luck

Very nice Gary, your time has paid off with a great shot..
There's no escaping it, ya gotta keep after em'
Well done!

Gary: Besides the most excellent plane of focus management I really like the dynamics of the comp. Exceptional image.>=))>

Gary I THINK that all has been said.
Perseverance is the only medicine there is in nature
Keep them coming

Yes Gary, very true, Luck is a matter of perseverance. I have been dreaming of an image of the hovering butterfly for so long now over a perfect perch. Sometimes, things simply do not happen no matter how much one would try, right time and right place. However I did not mean that this image was not good :), this is excellent, but I just shared what I had in my mind. We all see very differently and guess that's what keeps photography going, feels so good to see how others are visualizing the same thing. Thanks for sharing this one buddy :).

As others said, excellent shot, Gary.

Beautiful shot Gary. Only wish I could view a large version to enjoy it more!

Great shot. Even though you feel the butterfly is a little soft, it does not take away from the overall composition. The background is very pleasing too. I recently went to the Botanical Gardens butterfly exhibit here in Tucson to shoot the butterflies. It was amazing seeing all the beautiful butterflies, but I only got 3 good photos out of about 100.

Laura Stafford