This was a photo that I saw when I was photographing, when the monarch turned just so, giving the wings all that amazing texture in the mild sunlight, and hoped it would be that good on my screen when I got home. The backlit milkweed plant flowers really came out nicely, too. If it’s a boring day at the nature park and a monarch butterfly is close enough, I’ll follow it around for a bit in the hopes of getting something better than the hundreds of mundane butterfly photos I’ve already taken, and this is one of those.

July 25, 2020. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 360mm (35mm equivalent: 540mm), f/13, 1/125, ISO 400.