After the storm.

excellent exposure....

Thanks Douglas. If you remember the Isidore hurricane which hit New Orleans at the end of September, well, this shot was taken the very next day after the rain showers stopped. I was pretty surprised to see a pair of butterflies (this is one of them) which managed to survive the terrible wind and rain...

isn't it amazing, after the violence of that storm, the fagile beauty that could survive....

i live on the gulf coast as well...

...life goes on.

These butterflies are never so red in color -- was it Kodak E VS or photoshop?

Hi Arnab! Actually, in this case I've even had to remove some red from the butterfly, as it looked "unnatural" the way the film caught it. So yes, I'd say it must be the VS. (which is one of my two favorite films, along with Provia 100F)

As far as butterfly shots go, this isn't original. In the context of the storm that preceeded it, however, I doubt there are many other pictures of such tranquility, thus I think you have something special here.

What a nice capture, especially after the big storm.

 

I was wondering wheter you had used an unsharp mask to bring out the bright spots on the wings.

 

IMHO I would not crop the left, I like the unfocused circles of the flowers.

excellent

Wonderful colors Costin

Lovely .. image.

"I was wondering wheter you had used an unsharp mask to bring out the bright spots on the wings."

 

Luca, thanks for your comments - yes, I've used unsharp mask, but on the entire image, not just the butterfly wings. Unfortunately, the 75-300 is not a very sharp lens, especially while doing macro shots...

 

Good use of color; feels top heavy.

OUTSTANDING COLORS AND USE OF DEPTH.

Alexandru, no, they were simply... red. :-)

Allright, maybe not as saturated as you see them in this image, but close. :)

On the other side, the blue background you see here was a very nice green bush. :-)

Great exposure, wonderful colors

I've never seen such a brilliant blue behind a butterfly; this is exquisite!