Cindy Smith  

Refueling by Cindy Smith

November 2024 - Refueling

November 2024 - Cindy Smith

Original

About the Image(s)

Sony a7iii, 600mm, 1/400, f/9, September 13, 2023, Wendy Park, Cleveland, Ohio

Camera Raw/PhotoShop adjustments: dehaze, shadows and highlights, noise reduction, desaturation of yellows, saturation of oranges and reds, sharpened.

A nice advantage of living on the "north coast" here in Cleveland, Ohio is the annual monarch migration in mid-September. As thousands of these beautiful butterflies head to Mexico from Canada, they must fly across Lake Erie here in Ohio. Dependent on wind speed and direction, rain, and temperature, they fly around 50 miles to our shore. Exhausted and hungry, they 'refuel" in parks until they can continue their journey. Photographers gather before sunrise with cameras on tripods waiting for sunrise and a slight breeze to awaken them for flight. While this year was not a good year and numbers low, 2023 was nice; monarchs were everywhere throughout the county.

5 comments posted

Dean Ginther   Dean Ginther
Cindy
I definitely like the color palate of this image - soft yellows, orange, and touches of green. It all goes together well. I think the vertical crop is good too although I might take a bit more off the top. Were you using a tripod with this big and heavy lens?   Posted: 11/03/2024 23:55:33
Jennie Wang
(Group 25)
What a wonderful picture! Dean described my first impression of the photo so well! Great detail and the vertical crop works for this image. The image gives a warm, calm, and happy feeling... a very summery feeling - great to look at now the weather is much cooler.   Posted: 11/10/2024 00:31:23
Mervyn Hurwitz   Mervyn Hurwitz
Beautiful rendition of the Monarch. Color palette is excellent and you did a good job with the crop.
How lucky you are to have this display virtually in your backyard every year.
I agree with Dean about taking some off the top.   Posted: 11/10/2024 17:18:30
Pierre Williot   Pierre Williot
Simply beautiful image. Nice improvement from the initial capture. Delicate and soft with nice details on this likely female Monarch (not easy to distinguish when the top of the wings are not well visualized).
No suggestion for improvement.   Posted: 11/10/2024 17:29:53
Jacob Wat   Jacob Wat
You made a lot of great changes. I think that you really pulled your subject out from the background and really made it stand out. I was wondering if you know what the grey line on the petal behind the butterfly is. I was wondering if that is the shadow of the antenna or something else?

I also wanted to say you really captured a sense of warmth and softness that complements your subject well.   Posted: 11/11/2024 03:49:03

 

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