Nobody Creates Better Than Nature....

[flashback]

Nandkumar,

I think the second image is the better, and I think it's a great shot overall.

And while this is very personal thing, I might try and eliminate the butterfly on the left and right, the reason being is that the two central ones are naturally mirroring each other. Perhaps not but it's something I would play with just to see how it looked.

As for what they are doing, could be nutrients, could be the sap or could be water. It appears those are roots and rootlets so any of the aforementioned would be a reasonable assumption. As for FrankMi's photo, I would think, given it was a muddy spot, they were after water.

[Wavelength]

Very nice.

John,
Thank you very much

[Wavelength]

The improvement in your image helps!

Very interesting observation Nandakumar. Last year I saw 10-20 moths? doing exactly the same thing in a patch of mud by the side of the road. Perhaps the nutrient theory is correct as I couldn't see anything that might be food but if disturbed they would return to the same patch of mud within a few seconds. Not sure if these are moths or butterflies as I have not seen them before or since. I hope you don't mind me posting a shot of what I saw that day...

Thank you Frank; yes, and i liked this image very much

[Wavelength]

Beautiful, Nandakumar. I do think the first is too dark somehow, and the re-do improbably bright, but for the life of me don't have a useful suggestion as to how improve this. Partly, the difficulty may lie in Mike Buckley's apt comment on the juxtaposition of warm and cool. One needs one thing and the other another, maybe? But lovely in any case.

Mark Thank you so much

[Wavelength]

Wonderful translucence - nature's own stained glass windows. Whatever the post processing technicalities I imagine it was just a privilege to be there to take the shot. Beautiful - well done.

Steve, thank you very much

[Wavelength]

The revision works much better for me and is well worth your effort to change it.

The butterflies have a phosphorescent look that I'm not used to seeing, so I'm not sure how I want the image to look. If that's also true for you, you could benefit from revisiting this photo from time to time over the years as you develop more and more confidence in what you want your images to look like in general, in your post-processing skills, and then what you want this very unique image to look like.

I'm sure you're right about the butterflies seeking the nutrients in the soil and plants. I was in the Amazon once and our guide was a scientist who was conducting groundbreaking research on butterflies there. We were floating on a wooden raft on a lake at sunrise and butterflies were all over the raft. She explained that they were attracted by the nutrients in the wood.

Thank you very much for those fruitful information, Mike

[Wavelength]

Nandkumar,

I think the second image is the better, and I think it's a great shot overall.

And while this is very personal thing, I might try and eliminate the butterfly on the left and right, the reason being is that the two central ones are naturally mirroring each other. Perhaps not but it's something I would play with just to see how it looked.

As for what they are doing, could be nutrients, could be the sap or could be water. It appears those are roots and rootlets so any of the aforementioned would be a reasonable assumption. As for FrankMi's photo, I would think, given it was a muddy spot, they were after water.

Jack, thank you very much; you have mentioned a nice edit idea;
The butterflies were on the roots of then recently uprooted plants which were full of soil
Regards

[jprzybyla]

Nice image, beautiful butterflies. A color I have never seen.

[Wavelength]

Nice image, beautiful butterflies. A color I have never seen.

Thank you very much Joe

[Wavelength]

I got that; it is called mud-puddling
Please check:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud-puddling

Regards

[FrankMi]

I got that; it is called mud-puddling
Please check:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud-puddling

Regards

Thank you so much for the link, Nandakumar. My day will be complete now that I have learned something new and interesting!

[Wavelength]

Thank you Frank for these words; instead of searching the real word i searched for "soiling" and went astray....hopefully i continued because i was sure such things i had read early; thank God, I got it

[Downrigger]

Mudpuddling: new to me and very interesting. Thank you for that Nandakumar.
The feeding/mud puddling idea seems to interact with pheromone signalling in complex ways - the aggregation on plant material may often be a little of both:

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs...urnalCode=ento and http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs...urnalCode=ento

[Wavelength]

Mudpuddling: new to me and very interesting. Thank you for that Nandakumar.
The feeding/mud puddling idea seems to interact with pheromone signalling in complex ways - the aggregation on plant material may often be a little of both:

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs...urnalCode=ento and http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs...urnalCode=ento

That was another piece of interesting story regarding pheromones; thank you Mark, so much

[Pappadi]

I think these are Glassy Tigers (Parantica aglea.)
It is difficult to identify them from images like this one as one has to distinguish them from other common species like 'Dark Blue Tiger,' and 'BlueTiger.' The female of the 'Common Wanderer' looks convincingly similar, though smaller.

Males of this Tiger species need an alkaloid source to maintain their stock of mate-attracting chemicals or "sex pheromones." The Blue Tigers and the Tawny Tigers along with the Crows (beware,all are butterflies!) swarm over the damaged parts of plants (like Crotalaria, Heliotropium etc which contain the alkaloids in relatively higher quantities) from where the sap containing the alkaloid oozes out. Mark (Downrigger) has rightly mentioned the role of the 'urge.' Mike Buckley, they were after the alkaloids! And Jack has guessed it right! I think they are not mud-puddling here, but are drinking the sap.

About the image, I can only agree with Frank and others who have expressed similar opinion. Certainly, the edited version is much better. One can argue that there is a slight colour cast, but that is subjective in shots of this nature. The composition has also improved. Well, that also is subjective, if you may. It is better to leave such things finally to the creator.

About the title, I beg to differ. I will agree if you remove that "better" unless you can define it,convincingly well. A more meaningful word perhaps would be "like," imho.

[Wavelength]

That is more than a description; thank you very much, Ramji; I accept your suggestion regarding caption; on a deeper perspective, all life forms are Nature's creation, including human being; so what ever human beings create is Nature's own creation; then i would say Nobody Creates other than Nature
Regards