Butterfly in Flight

[Merlyn]

Went to the local butterfly house to get a few photos of the first batch of butterflies released this year. The one pictured is a Zebra butterfly which are very active. It was tough to get a photo of one sitting or resting with its wings spread, which I never did. This capture was pure luck, in flight. As I pressed the shutter, it flew and I knew that I missed the shot. After downloading onto the computer, I found this photo. I like it, lucky but I like. What do you folks think?
Taken with my 70-200 f2.8 with a fill flash set to -2. No edits other then a crop.

[rikkersc]

Wow! Great job for a butterfly in flight! I have also taken many butterfly photos and they can be tough to get ... especially those active ones! If anything, maybe you would want to try cropping out the branch on the right, to give it more of a "flight" effect? Hard to tell... you could always try a few different crops and see if any of them look good.

[xysmas]

I love the DOF on that shot, especially with the tree branch still in focus there - it almost makes the butterfly look like s/he is coming in for a landing.

To tweak the image a bit, i would bump up the colors in the butterfly to really make it pop more than it does already. I would also crop the top left corner out - the black space at the top is a little distracting IMO.

Good shot overall, bet your glad it came out the way it did.

[knickers71uk]

Great DOF i just find the slightly out of focus branch on the right a tad distracting

[NaturesPixel]

brilliant!!! something I'm yet to accomplish i do find the branch distracting... but that cant be helped well done

[jiminyClickit]

Merlyn,

Mostly ditto above, and if you want to go un-further-cropped, turning the branch green to match surroundings would also reduce distracting quality. Pure luck is a necessary part of all this, so congratulations on having some!

[sana]

Really amazing shot. I'd perhaps try to crop it tight, let almost the 'Op Art' effect of its wings stretch across the picture. The diagonal in the background is pretty cool too.

[Merlyn]

Branch, what branch? I must be going blind. I just did not notice the branch being out of focus the way it is. Guess I was looking with tunnel vision at the butterfly and did not notice it. It just goes to show that there is a lot to learn and a lot to look for in a photo to make sure it is "correct" for everyone if you intend to display it. Guess it pays to look all around the subject and not just at the subject.
Thanks folks for the judgment.