Monarch Butterfly

[Mike Milicia]

EOS-1D Mk III, 300mm f/4 + 25mm extension tube, 1/500, f/11, ISO 400
Fill Flash at -1
Full Frame

Photographed earlier this month in a flower garden along the main road on Monhegan Island in ME.

Can anyone ID the orange flower?

Looking forward to your comments and critiques !

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Beautiful image Mike. Especially liked the OOF flowers in the BG which IMO adds to the image. May be their bright colours compete with the butterfly a wee bit & their colours could be mellowed down just a little. Do u have other frames with slightly lesser DOF? The BG looks a tad noisy too (under close inspection).
Overall, I liked this image a lot.

[Julie Kenward]

It's a Mexican Sunflower and monarchs LOVE them!

This is a beautiful example of how to do a busy background really well! Lots of repeating color and no overt hot spots anywhere...it's just gorgeous!

If you want to get picky, I'd say clone or clean up those spots on the red petals of the sunflower but only if you feel that is something you would want to do. They don't diminish the image but they do cut back on the impact that one red flower could have against that sea of purple.

[Gus Cobos]

Very well done Mike. I like it as presented...good show...:cool:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hello Mike, wonderful image, full of color! Instantly makes me happy (it's a rainy fall here). Great job on the BG, adds loads of color without distracting from the subject (probably thanks to the DOF and fill flash?). The angle of the red flower and the butterfly nail the composition IMO.
- Jerry -

[Mike Moats]

Hey Mike, very nice image and the background works because it's consistent though out the image.

[Ed Vatza]

Beautiful! I love everything about it. The background oof flowers makes for an excellent canvas for the subject Monarch and perch. The color of the perch flower contrasts beautifully with the background. And the butterfly is very sharp. Excellent capture.