Thirsty

I really love the bright colors here (but don't I always?). The dark greens against the bright oranges are stunning and really bring out the colors in the monarch. There's a nice slight blur in the background, which I like, and it's very nicely composed. I especially love the way the black edge of the wings form a swooping diagonal through the whole picture and the body falls just slightly off-center. You're incredibly lucky to have had the time to get such a nicely composed picture of a butterfly... those things just don't seem to like to stay still for too long.

I'd like to see something similar to this with a slightly shallower depth of field (bokeh, anyone?), or perhaps something featuring more wing detail. I know there's some beautiful veins in there somewhere. <img src="e.deviantart.com/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Big Grin)" /> But for the subject, the colors and positioning really make this a beautiful photo to look at. You really did a great job getting this at just the right moment in the best way possible.