Taken at the Butterfly Farm, St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. Sorry -- I don't know the species.
Canon 7D
Canon 100/2.8 Macro
1/640 sec f/9 ISO 400
Canon 430 EX + homemade diffuser mounted on camera (piece of translucent white kitchen chopping mat from Target ... velcro glued on edges ... on Better Beamer frame in place of Fresnel lens)
Handheld
Crop for composition, sharpening in CS5
Nice one, Ian! I believe this is Colobura dircoīdes (no English common name) from Costa Rica. I've seen (and photographed) it in another butterfly garden. The image seems a little on the yellow side. The bluish cast on the wings seems to be natural, my image of this species has it too. The square crop suits the butterfly well.
Thanks for the ID and critique, Jerry. I'm working on my laptop, so will hold off going crazy with color balance until I'm back home. The butterfly garden here is beautiful with a large number of species. Unfortunately, it is never cool enough here (at least when the place is open) for them to calm down and sit still for a portrait!
Hi Ian, I know what you mean! One trick is to find out where the feeders are. You'll often find a few butterflies perching close by. Or try to find flowers that they feed on and just wait for a while. Alternatively, you could try for a BIF! I'll try and post an image from my last visit to a butterfly garden.
Yes. At least at the one in Phoenix, if you get there early enough, they are relatively quiescent. Unfortunately, the feeders here aren't very nice looking (I have some images of them perched, but don't like them). I'll be back to the garden before I leave the island and see what else I can get. There are some gorgeous large metallic blue ones, but they don't sit still!
Hi Ian. This is a very nice specimen giving you a good pose and you nailed the focus! The black background isn't my personal favorite for daytime photos, but that's a matter of taste - and it can be problematic to avoid when using one flash as main light. This is nicely done!
Hey Ian, nice pose, light looks good, sharpness good throughout....it all looks good from this end! I can understand why some people don't like a black BG but personally I do like it....no distractions so all focus is on the beautiful 'fly!