This is the same Praying Mantis I used in the Triangle challenge. She migrated to one of my butterfly bushes and after she killed her 3rd Tiger Swallowtail in one day (she ate the first, part of the 2nd and just the head of the 3rd), I told her she was being a bad bug and moved her to a more butterfly-free area of the yard. She disappeared for a few weeks and then reappeared in the midst of yet more butterfly bushes. Went out to check on her repeatedly after the challenge was announced and sure enough, found her one morning cheerfully munching on a Monarch, the little brat. Why must she eat the pretty butterflies?! I asked her not to several times ;-)
The Skipper lucked out and took off again before she was done with her main course. He may not be so lucky next time; she is an awfully successful huntress.
Had all my extension tubes on (36mm + 20mm + 12mm) and used diffused fill flash.
PP - cropped, levels, dodged/burnt some details, gradient filter on upper right, cloned out a dust spot, increased saturation and contrast, resized, sharpened, hand-sharpened a little on mantis, blurred background more (especially Monarch wing), added border.
Statistics
Place: 89 out of 168 Avg (all users): 5.3967 Avg (commenters): 6.0000 Avg (participants): 5.4839 Avg (non-participants): 5.3051 Views since voting: 809 Views during voting: 256 Votes: 121 Comments: 5 Favorites: 0
Interesting image in that you have the 2 insects in the same frame. It does appear however that the more interesting part of the image is not the main focus of the shot.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
