Great Spangled Fritillary

I finally got out and enjoyed the cooler weather we've had here lately, and found an abundance of butterflies - especially fritillaries feeding on blooming thistle. This guy seemed to like having his picture taken - he would have looked better with two antennae though...

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day.

Bill, I'm glad you were able to get out and enjoy the weather, it was absolutely awesome in KC this past week.

Very nice comp overall, great color and perfect complimentary bg for the subject. Sharpness is right where it should be, with the eye in focus. I'm in a quandry though, at times I like the subject's placement in the frame but at other times I'd like to see just a tad more room around the edge of the frame.

Either way, nicely captured image Bill, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your comments Wayne. I took several horizontals as well, and thought this one looked a tad better for some reason - maybe because the thistle bloom filled more of the bottom part of the frame. I'm not sure about this one, but many butterfies were starting to look pretty beat up, with tattered wings (and missing antennae) so I may have cropped that part out on the right when composing the shot.

Bill - I don't mind the close crop. In fact, I can imagine croping up from the bottom a little bit. It might tighten the focus a little more.

Anyway, glad to see you're enjoying the cooler weather. I know I am - too bad I don't have time to take advantage of it

Bill, nicely done and I like the way you have cropped the image. What caught my interest was the reflection of the thistle on the under side of the left wing, or at least it looks like a reflection? Anyway I like what you have done here. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comments!

David, I didn't notice the reflection you mentioned until I posted it, and was hoping someone else might catch it too. I thought it was pretty cool.