Monarch
Royal Throne
This monarch butterfly took a moment to rest and feed on the flowers provided by West of the Lake Gardens in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
These favorite photo subjects will be departing for central Mexico soon. I was able to grab a few butterfly and flower photos on a recent Saturday. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to share a few more of these in the near future.
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Monarch Feasting
I find butterflies to be one of the most fascinating creatures in nature. And, when it comes to butterflies, I believe the monarch butterfly is one of the most beautiful.
I snapped this butterfly feasting on some type of wildflower at a local park area. You can also see another butterfly in the background on the left side of the frame. I believe that was a smaller, painted lady butterfly.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Avid Gardener
I found this monarch butterfly carefully tending the coneflowers in a Missouri flowerbed.
I seem to be seeing more monarchs this year. I recently learned the monarch is also called by a variety of other names – milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black veined brown.
You can get a better, larger view of this one by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Flitting Among the Asters
On a warm summer day, this monarch butterfly was enjoying the weather and the wildflowers.
This was in a vacant field in the middle of an urban area. The warm sun and abundance of wildflowers were attracting a number of butterflies. Of course, they attracted me and my camera.
My goal was to capture the butterflies in flight. Not difficult to do with the number of butterflies in the area. The difficult part was to capture them close up and in focus. They fly erratically, up and down and every direction. Thankfully, with today’s modern digital cameras, you can snap hundreds of photos (if needed) without the expense of photo development to find the right shot. On this particular shoot, I believe I snapped about 140 shots and came away with several keepers. Still, while this particular butterfly is in focus, when you look closely, the image suffers from a bit of motion blur. (Did I mention they fly erratically?)
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Exotic Pole Dancer
A monarch butterfly clings to a thin twig, displaying its beautiful markings and color.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Monarch Flight
A monarch butterfly rises majestically above the patch of purple asters. I snapped this photo in a field next to my workplace. I’d been working on trying to catch the few monarchs I found in flight. Catching one in focus is a formidable challenge because of their erratic motion in flight. This is a view of the butterfly from behind, wings on the downward stroke.
To view a larger, more detailed version of this image, click on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Reclining Monarch
This is a butterfly common to our neighborhood and most of North America. This is the much-loved monarch butterfly. I found this one on a cool morning, perched among some purple asters growing wild in a field. Because of the early, cool conditions, this monarch was moving slow and the asters hadn’t opened yet.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Monarch of the Meadow
This monarch butterfly, sitting on the head of a cone flower, was stretching its wings in the early morning sun. I like the way the petals from the flower look like trailing streamers.
I was delighted to capture this image because butterflies have been a real challenge for me. Of all my attempts – chasing the fidgety creatures around with my camera – I’ve only been able to catch a couple of images I’ve been happy with. I just happened to catch this one early in the morning, not fully awake. I even had to nudge it to get it to open its wings.
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