What changed: Following Jim and Canan’s suggestions, here’s another take on the butterfly. I rotated it back to the original position, and reduced exposure (and highlights slightly) on the BG. Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
The Great Purple Emperor hatches and on the first sunny day in late June descends to imbibe minerals, in preparation for mating. I only see it for one or two days, and then it zooms up to the canopy where the females will hatch a few days later. I’ve never seen a female so I doubt if they eat much or at all. This male came to suck up nourishment from a pine tree. It had just landed, which was fortunate, as they very quickly close their wings when feeding, only opening them momentarily if they are being disturbed by ants or flies. I liked the texture of the bark too. And the shadow of the butterfly to me suggests an exploration of its ancient provider.
Feedback Requested
Without the sun yesterday, I wouldn’t have had any chance to see this butterfly. Today it was slightly overcast - no sign of them. Of course this meant that the BG came out a bit too bright, so I selected the butterfly, inverted it and toned down the bark. I could have blurred it, but that would have made it seem unnatural, being so close, and, more to the point, I like the textures and the shadow. I find them to be all of a piece. Agreed? I also rotated the photo 180 deg. as I preferred this view. A tree expert might find the bark a bit weird because it’s up-side-down; does it bother you?
As I am no tree expert, I didn’t notice your flip and now I do it still doesn’t bother me, although upside down would have been OK, too. Are they really this blue? Having never seen one IRL, I have no idea, but it doesn’t look purple to me. Purple is the hardest color to render in film or digital photos because the wavelengths of the two colors that make up purple are the farthest apart on the color scale. Either way it’s so striking and a pristine specimen. Thanks for sharing so much info about their lives and habits - bugs are weird aren’t they?
Yes, Kris, they are in fact blue, unlike Apaturas, which are closer to purple. In Korean they are called the 5-color butterfly, though the yellow spots are often very pale yellow, as here. Yes, bugs are weird - and fascinating. I’m glad you don’t mind it facing up. I thought folks might find the topside shadows a bit surreal; I like surreal!
I like the look of this. It does look like an illustration, but not because of the rotation (not noticeable), but because it appears everything except the blue has been desaturated. A very cool effect, as I’m assuming this is all “original” color, though I think the flatness from the toning down of the bark contributes to this effect a bit.
It’s well-seen, and your instincts were spot on taking advantage of the nice complementary bark pattern.
Very well seen, Mike. I like the flip, though the shadows did look a bit odd to me and I was wondering where they came from until I read the description. Interesting that the background is bark, as it had the look of some kind of mineral formation to my eye when I first saw it. Nicely done.
Thank you, Max. That blue really stands out on fresh specimens like this one. I’m glad you find that the bark complements the butterfly without distracting.
Mike: Our butterfly center has had these in the past so now I’m going to have to do a search and rescue mission to see if I can find some of my shots. I do recall that they are indeed this blue. For me the bark really makes the shot and is the perfect complement to the butterfly. Flipping it definitely works. Great job taking advantage of the opportunity. >=))>
Thank you, Bill. Sasakia charonda the Latin name. Only saw one today, though it was very sunny. I also found my first ever female, or rather a single forewing of one; the flycatchers and wagtails have been very busy!
Mike, this is a new BF to me. I don’t think I have ever seen one. Upside down would have been alright but since I hadn’t paid any attention to the shadows at first, this seems to work too. My eyes were fixed on the BF and not the bark and shadows I think.
I would like to see the non-inverted version of this photo. I would like to see slightly more contrast and slight reduction of exposure in the BG as the shadows could be darker for more depth. Great colors on this butterfly and certainly worth going after this one. Underwing moth collectors use a mixture of beer, banana, molasses , and brown sugar to mimic fermented sap flows which attracts a variety of Lepidoptera. You may want to try this type of bait to lure more in for additional photo-ops. Well done…Jim
Both the bark and the butterfly are beautiful on their own, but when put next to each other, I think they are competing too much. So I’ll humbly disagree with the others on this post & say that I think the bark is very distracting. And it’s not clear which of them is the subject of the picture. And even before I read your post, I thought that the butterfly looked cut and pasted. If this were my picture, I’d crop it more closely, and darken the bark as much as possible to showcase the butterfly, and then go back to the same spot on another day & take a picture of the bark and turn that into a whole other picture.
