October Butterfly - An unusual visitor to our garden

I did a bit of gardening today (in between rain showers).

Dug a few bushes out and then dug a couple of new azalea's into the hole vacated by the 'dig out'

This was a rather unexpected visitor into our garden today.......a butterfly in October.

I'm not too impressed with the background or composition , but i've been willing one of these chaps to land on my butterfly bush all summer !!!!

Hop you consider it OK.

[Joseph Leotta]

great colors

[peter/zipp]

hey, pretty cool close up again - not managed to find a still one yet! well done fella.

[Pat Knowles]

this is a great macro shot Phil & wonderful to see a butterfly in your garden after all these winds we have had ! You have every detail there & lovely colour !

[Kerri]

Beautiful

[Mags]

Awesome shot! Good job!

[Sue Wilde]

Fabulous detail in that shot. Just look at the furry body!

[Robin Mersh]

It's Great Phil - well caught!

[Judith Greenwood]

Better late than never - it's a lovely shot Phil!! Nice & hairy!

[Juliette Packham]

great shot Phil - I've not seen many butterflies about. I love the red admirals - nice detail

[Phil Howcroft]

@sparkle thanks juliette, glad you like him :)

[Phil Howcroft]

@judithg Judith i'm a bit worried about the background.......they are little 'carnations' and are very distracting...for butterfly shots you really need some bokeh background, but as he was the first one i've managed to capture all summer I decided to post it

[Phil Howcroft]

@robinmersh cheers robin:)

[Judith Greenwood]

@phil_howcroft You could always fuzzy up the carnations in photoshop - I liked seeing what it had landed on though.

[Phil Howcroft]

@swilde thnx sue, i'd prefer the furry to be smooth as it might show more detail. i didn't know they were furry , maybe it was the time of year or maybe they are always furry :) ..i'm not a butterfly expert :)

[Phil Howcroft]

@marlboromaam thnx marlboro

[Phil Howcroft]

@happypat thnx pat it was a complete shock to find him

[Phil Howcroft]

@sleepdozer57 thnx peter he didn't hang around long so it was a hasty photo shoot

[Phil Howcroft]

@jml0306 thank you very much joseph

[Allison Williams]

I marked this as a fav because of the wonderful colors. I've never seen this species. And I like the contrast between the vivid colors of the wings and the subdued background. Well done, Phil!

[Anita]

Cool shot... butterflies in Oct... who'd have thunk it?

[MaryBeth Dailey]

Love those antenna and eyes. @judithg I am with Judith...if you did want to make him stand out, you could use piknik.com and the edit focal soften. It would keep the butterfly sharp and background blurred. Or even use "gooify" and you "drag around" the background and can swirl it up or other designs, then airbrush it. But it is very good like this! He is an "Oct." butterfly with his Halloween colors!