Monarchs en masse

In 1983, I was part of a research team to study the monarch butterfly migration to Mexico. I was there to take pictures, of course, but I learned a lot about this fascinating phenomenon of nature. I had to use flash back then because in the shadows of the forest my shutter speed would have been too slow, thus getting sharp pictures would have been a problem. All the monarchs that populate the U.S. east of the Mississippi River migrate to the mountains in Michoacan, Mexico, to overwinter. Butterflies can't fly if temperatures drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so when clouds cover the sun the insects take flight so they won't be trapped in vulnerable places, like the ground. Tens of millions of butterflies flying simultaneously sound like the wind, but it's the sound of their wings. I used a Mamiya RZ 67, a 250mm lens, and Ektachrome 64 transparency film. Here you can see the butterflies hanging on tree branches. They are so dense it's hard to see the tree.

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Monarchs en masse

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