Autumn?

[Julie Kenward]

I went all summer without a decent butterfly image. Oh, I got one here or there but it wasn't anything like the past couple of years where they'd drop out of the sky and ask to have their portraits taken. Finally, yesterday, I was out looking for leaves on the water and there was the last clump of wild daisies and not one but TWO monarchs, gorging themselves on the nectar before the next leg of their journey. It was one last breath of spring before the rain moved in and the temperatures plummeted. Tonight will be close to freezing...

It totally made my day. ;):D;)

Canon 40D, EF 400 f5.6L
f5.6 @ 1/640th, ISO 400
Manual mode, pattern metering, no flash
Overcast & cloudy with the wind blowing like crazy
Processed in ACR & CS4; Crop, levels and saturation tweaks, sharpening

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Very nicely composed image, Julie. I guess it made up for the search during the summer. Personally, i would have liked more DOF on this to get all of the daisies, buds and plants in sharp focus. Looking at the SS and uniform BG, i felt there was room to stop down. Not sure whether you tried that. TFS.

regards,
ramesh

[Don Lacy]

Hi Jules, Lovely BG and the Monarch contrast nicely with the white Daisies, I think I would crop from the the bottom to eliminate the OOF buds.

[Harshad Barve]

awesome image , compo and expo
TFS

[Connie Mier]

I think the dof looks great here, very nice bg too and like your composition as well. There's a bit of oof in the bottom I would be tempted to crop out.

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks everyone...I agree about the OOF blooms needing to be cropped. It's funny how you can have an image on your screen and think the comp needs that little bit of extra room and then you upload the image and realize not so much! That's what I love about this forum - you all really keep me on my toes!

[Steve Maxson]

Very nicely done, Jules, especially considering the wind. Love the background. I too would suggest a crop off the bottom. :)

[Vida van der Walt]

Lovely image Julie. Well worth the wait to find it. I feel if you decide to crop the oof blooms you will have to take a little bit of the top as well to balance the image.:)