COMMENTS:

Brian Magor	The Americans and the Europeans have a different approach to nature photography. The Americans like the subject to fill the frame, whereas the Europeans like to see the subject in its environment, The butterfly is good, but the background is distracting and needs darkening down quite a lot.
Susan Davi	Beautiful butterfly, and nice shot with his wings and antennae outstretched. Too bad the background isn't more subdued so that the butterfly's black and white wings would pop out of the photo more.
Richard Harper	I have a picture of one of these.  I have entered it in several International Nature Salons, but without success. I wonder if the black is too dense. It’s  a pity, because, it’s a good presentation.
Frank Foto	Great shot! Love the angle, and this particular butterfly always looks great in green leafy surroundings. There are a couple of things I'd like to comment on, though. Having learned a tremendous amount regarding technique during my attendance at the camera club competitions, one of the things I notice almost every judge comment on is the fact that focus should be concentrated on the face of the subject. It would be difficult in this image since it's taken from a different angle. But if you notice, the sharpest point of the image is in the tail of the butterfly, and the small flower buds just in front - sharpness falls off toward the antennae. That might be a problem in competition. A narrower aperture might have worked to increase depth of field, but then you would have needed a tripod because of the slower shutter speed. Did you use one? Also, it might stand to be cropped just a tad more up front (at the bottom of the image). The darkened edges work great in this image, in my view.
Chuck McCollom	This is a very attractive butterfly to photograph. I had a similar image that I took locally and submitted a few years ago. The leaves in front are a little distracting
Linda Speh	I like him a lot. I would love to see him from the other side but posing is not always an option. For a Nature competition, I would crop some off the bottom and bring the butterfly more in to fill the frame. Nice catch!

Jim Mayo

After retiring as an ob-gyn physician 3 years ago I decided to pursue one of my boyhood hobbies of photography. I quickly learned that I would have to work part time as a doctor just to pay for all the 'stuff' I needed. It used to be simple, just take your pictures and develop the black and whites or send the colors to a lab. Now I use an expensive camera, computer, and software to digitally manipulate and then print large pictures. I take a lot of pictures and courses to work toward a professional level. I really enjoy it and have met many wonderful people through photography.