Silk Moths

Butterflies, insects, moths and flowers are common subjects, but this is a lovely and pleasing composition. Well done!

DG

well done, nicely captured

Just absolutely exquisite! A marvelous capture.

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful....

Very much in the style of illustrations in guide books. The 3 views of the same species, on top, profile and underneath, would be helpful in identification. At this resolution, it is difficult to distinguish this photo from a painting. Well done.

Excellent photo.  Well done.

A compelling arrangement and superior presentation. It's tempting to nitpick and suggest that a narrower DOF should have been employed to isolate the butterflies from the somewhat busy palette, but I think this image more reminds me of a Japanese print than a more "Western" composition (think Rembrandt). So, giving the artist the benefit of the doubt, I do say this is really well handled.

The silk moths are very pretty, but otherwise the picture seems to me to be made up of a bunch of disparate elements that don't come together as a unified whole. (I realize this is pretty much the opposite of what's been said about the picture so far.)

I like the way the three upper flowers form a diagonal and the three moths echo that diagonal. I like the way the stems of the flowers curve down gracefully. The flowers are pointing down while the moths are pointing up. I like that, too. The colours are vivid for me without being oversaturated. All and all, I think it's a pleasing photograph, and there's more to the composition's arrangement than first meets the eye. It's a nice image to let your eyes sort of wander over, picking out details here and there.

This photo deserves all the credits due to great composition, overall clarity, excellent colors and dark b/g enabling that flowers and butterflies simply jump out from the screen.

Extremely appealing and interesting photo of the 3 silk moths. Love how the top moth is heavy enough to bend over the flower. Well done. Good DOF and clarity on the moths as well as the flowers.
Like!!

It's a pretty setup but not to my taste. It feels artificial somehow.

Very well done, Andre, I love the composition and depth of field, and congrats on the prestigious POW honor!

  Tony

I agree with Jim Adams here. It is a nice composition and attractive image. Maybe most important though, is that it has the clarity, descriptive qualities and straight forwardness that this genre requires.

This genre isn't one I am overly interested in for my own creative outlet but I do have to admit that I enjoyed looking through the set this one is part of. What I enjoyed was seeing, described pretty well in each image, the variety of butterflies and moths that were beyond my awareness. There are just a lot of strange and beautiful creatures many of us will never see or experience in this world.

The composition has a bit to many details I think that if the two lower flowers on the LHS were deleted the composition will look better IMO. That said, the colors, the lines of the flowers stems and the butterflies are well executed. The series in general is very beautiful for this jenre..

I'm a little torn with my opinion of this image. While the capture of three moths on a stem is admirable, I'm really distracted by the busyness of the composition as a whole. Looking at Andrey's portfolio I find the entire collection superb with simple, clean composition which makes this image an anomaly. I've even waited several days to comment on this to see if anyone else came to the same conclusion that I have that this is a composite. No one has and if not, my apologies to Andrey for bringing it up.
In short, I find this image... distracting. I like the earlier suggestion to remove the lower flowers and retain the main stem with moths.

Wonderful dark background, perhaps the most suitable to show off this feast of colors.Everything is frozen, with very accurate exposure and WB.A part of a document about " a day in the life of nature".Well done Andrey.Regards

I generally enjoy the photograph, with my only quibble being that I wish the flowers on the bottom had all been in sharp focus.

Having never done photography of insects, I have more questions than observations regarding Andrey's photograph. Was it done in the studio (esp. considering the black background) or in the field? If in the studio, what was used for lighting? Is this a single exposure or an assemblage of several photographs (I'd guess single)? Are the moths all alive and capable of flight at this moment (as opposed to being dead or very cold)? Finally, you've suggested that digital manipulation was involved; what was the nature of that processing? Thanks.

Dear all:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments and suggestions. I really appreciate your input and constructive criticism.

I was debating if I should post here and provide some information. In the end, here are hopefully the answers to your questions.

This image is a set up. The moths were live, raised from caterpillars, and released after wing expansion. They were well taken care of while in captivity. The black background was from a foamboard. The flowers were grown in two pots, not cut.

I used a Nikon D200 with 60mm Micro Nikkor, on a tripod, long exposure, daylight, next to a window in a house.
I thought of the many blossoms being a bit distracting. This is possibly the only image in the series (others not published yet), that has the most elements. I was thinking of creating something like a rug pattern feeling. Usually, I do my best to not have the image overloaded.

Thank you once again for your time and attention to my work.

Sincerely,
Andrey

Nice, but not a "photo of the week".
Where can I find the actual names of "the Elves" - how can I contact them and ask them something? Thx.

Andrey, thanks for the added information -- it's appreciated.

Very well done, reminds me of Audubon prints, stylized & colorful!!

Excellent photo!!!