Red-spotted Purple portrait

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL XT
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Manual mode
1/320"
F11
ISO: 200
Canon 430EX: On, Fired
CS3

This species doesn't generally feed on flowers and I usually find them perched in places that don't offer the best photo ops. This one is on the roof of my car. The wings are open and the one in front is pointed straight at the camera. The other wing is what you see on the left. It's dark and I want it that way because I'm trying to showcase the head in this shot.

I'm sure this photo won't appeal to everyone and many of you would rather see the full, beautiful butterfly.

[Allen Sparks]

I like the eye detail and curled up probiscus. It works for me.

[Julie Kenward]

Ken, this is definitely a different perspective; for that reason I'm going to copy the thread down to the OOTB forum so they can enjoy it as well.

I don't mind how dark the image is but I do think it would have been stronger from a comp standpoint if you had tilted the camera to get both wing tips and maybe gone to a pano crop? Just a thought.

Neat vision on this, though...

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ken, it has a cool erie look. Good details on the head.

[Julie Brown]

Ken, I love the detail and color in the head and proboscis. I have never seen one of these guys on a flower. Usually I see them feeding on the rotting apples from a tree in my yard (usually in the shade) so it is difficult to get enough light at times.

[Jerry van Dijk]

HI Ken, I like it very very much! I love how you captured the details and used front and backwing to create FG and BG. I also like how the light seems makes the head stand out. This image is really something different.

[Myer Bornstein]

I would love to see it Frac

[Charissa]

This is very nice Ken. I would, however, crop this a bit tighter,so as get the head to stand out more, and go with a pano crop as suggested above. The reddish, bronze colors is really special.