I had a wonderfully-long encounter with this male Monarch in my favorite campus garden today. Yes, I found a “moving” garden snail shell just like the one I posted 5 days ago. Yes, I discovered a moth species new to our yard. Despite those “finds” at home, though, I thought this was a different perspective on a Monarch butterfly. Gorgeous, they are, but we try so hard to photograph them in all their spectacular orange-and-black from above (or from the side as Joyce captured both body and under-wings recently — http://365project.org/sparkleplenty1/365/2012-09-23 — that I think we tend to overlook how cool their white-spotted bodies are. So that’s my Monarch post for today: the wings are less-in-focus than the body, especially that far fore-wing!
A general question to throw out there: given that a butterfly’s proboscis is coiled when not extended, how does it down into such a narrow flower such as these small butterfly bush flowers?
Caveat. While I was at this garden, which is adjacent to one of the greenhouses on campus, “Karen” from the greenhouse approached and noted that she had noticed me in the garden frequently. She wondered if I were photographing the flowers or the “critters.” If I were interested in flowers, she wanted me to know that the greenhouse is open to the public whenever it’s open during business days. Good to know!
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
That really is quite incredible and very beautiful. Having never captured a decent butterfly shot I'm really rather envious of your continuous ability at getting such amazing shots Thom :o) xx
@psychographer Thanks so much, Lisa. This was the shot I chose out of 35 shots, 80% of which are in the Recycle Bin. Not having to "burn" film and pay for processing or printing only to toss out the "losers" is one distinct advantage of *digital* photography!
![Sigh. [Travel-day]](https://media.365project.org/1/9428160_bfilmqru48_sq.jpg "Sigh. [Travel-day]")