Pipeline Swallowtail Butterfly

[rpk717]

Shot this guy today while out looking for Swallowtail Kites. Found the kites but liked this butterfly so I thought I would post it.

[Casey]

Don't see how you could have improved this one. Great background, sharp image and beautiful color. What more you want? Will the Kites be there next weekend?

[rpk717]

Thanks Casey for the kind words, there are a couple small nits I have with this image but I will withhold them and see who can find them.

The kites may be around for a while or may not. They were very late coming into the field today and not nearly in the numbers I saw the past several days. They tend to just disappear without notice so I'm hoping they will stay around for a while.

I hear you have a really nice shot of a Swallow-tailed Kite, full frame clutching a bug in each talon. How about sharing with the rest of us??;)

Jerry B. said it was very nice..

[rhunter58]

Hi Robert,

I think one of your nits is the right foreleg blured--must have been a slow sutter speed--nice shot.

[mrsisu]

Only looking for issues as you said you had some. Overall wonderful. Is some movement with the upper wings but likely expected and I'll bet difficult to get a really fast shutter speed. ? Is there a horizontal yet subtle line in the background on the lower third of the image. Again I really like it. There is so much detail in this image ie a very positive image for me. Don Wuori ie MrSisu

[rpk717]

You guys found most of my nits, the blurred foreleg and wings were the major items. The slight line in the lower third is I think the BG, there was a barbed wire fence in the vicinity, it doesn't bother me much. Another issue I had was at the fork in the thistle was a distraction that I did a poor job in Photoshop removing. I would rather that I didn't have to remove it but had to to achieve that clean look I was going for.

[wetbelly]

I really like the composition. You got a much better background than I did on this guy. I think you should of left the fork alone, I see nothing wrong with showing the imperfections of nature since I get suspicious when images are too clean. ;)

[jrosamond]

Love it. Very nice composition.

[Photobiologist]

Neat shots - I didn't even notice the wingtip blur. I liked the foreleg/proboscis being a little blurred when I first saw it sense that movement shows the butterfly is actively feeding.