Friday, August 14, 2009

Monarch Butterfly on Narrow-Leaf Milkweed

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Milkweed is the host plant for the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Here a male Monarch feeds on one of three Narrow-Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) growing in our garden.


4 comments:

  1. Very nice shot. I love the clear resolution. I spent yesterday taking photos of monarchs, black swallotails and attempts at a zebra without success.

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  2. Hi Tabor-

    I usually use my camera's macro or super-macro mode to photograph flowers and insects, with noticeably sharper results, but this male was the first Monarch I've seen here this year (Monarch Butterflies aren't real common in Big Bear) and I didn't want to scare him off, so I took this photo from about 7 feet away at full zoom, 100mm, or the equivalent of 560mm in 35mm format.

    My relatively inexpensive (compared to an SLR) Canon SX10IS has image stabilization and I took 13 pictures of the Monarch, 3 or 4 of which I considered sharp enough to keep.

    This one was shot in manual mode at full zoom, f/5.7, 1/200th, ISO 80.

    I have another which shows the Monarch with his wings fully open so you can see the two patches of pheromone dispersing androconial scales on his hind wings.

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  3. Good reading thhis post

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