Flight of the butterflies - Ingo Arndt - Wildlife Photographer of the Year2007

2007: Creative Visions - Highly Commended

Ingo Arndt Enlarge image Flight of the butterflies

Ingo Arndt (Germany)

Flight of the butterflies

'I positioned myself in a small clearing, where I could photograph the clouds of monarchs passing overhead. I used a long exposure to get a dynamic image of movement. But there was just one day when the sun shone into the clearing, and the sky provided the brilliant blue backdrop I was after.' One of the world's most famous wildlife migrations starts in Michoacán, Mexico. Every year in early spring, about 400 million monarch butterflies leave their overwintering site in the Sierra Madre mountains to fly to North America - a journey of more than 3,000 kilometres. Their bright colours advertise the fact they are foul-tasting and poisonous to predators.

Canon EOS 5D + Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM lens; 1/45 sec at f32; ISO 100; tripod.

This photograph is available to buy as a print.