May 2026 Wildlife Photography Contest Advanced Category Winner

Nothing Says Spring Like Forget-Me-Nots by Sue Earnshaw

A green-veined white butterfly taking off from the forget-me-nots in my garden.

The journey to capturing this image has involved many thousands of photographs of butterflies in flight and just as many wildflower seeds sown in what was once a barren corner of our new home. The wildflowers now take care of themselves, self-seeding freely and delivering a wonderful display every spring — and with them, a wide variety of pollinators, including butterflies.

While some consider forget-me-nots to be weeds, I let them flourish. Their vibrant blue flowers provide early nectar and brighten the garden from the first days of spring well into May. My reward is a host of insects, like this butterfly, foraging among the blooms.

Alongside cultivating the flowers has come many hours of watching butterflies to understand their habits — learning which species take off straight up, which fly backwards, and which depart at an angle. All of this matters when trying to get the plane of focus right for both the butterfly and the flower it is perched on. A fast shutter speed is essential — 1/5000s in this case — as is a steady hand when shooting handheld, as I do.

Sitting in my garden one early afternoon in May, I was waiting patiently when this butterfly flew in and flitted across the sea of forget-me-nots, landing briefly to sip nectar before moving on to the next flower. It did not take long to lock focus and begin capturing frames each time it landed and lifted off again.

In this sequence, the butterfly was facing me on the flower before rising straight up — allowing me to hold focus through those first few downstrokes and capture the wings fully open at the moment of takeoff. I had spent countless hours and thousands of frames hoping for exactly that.

To me, this photograph is far more than a butterfly taking flight. It is the culmination of years spent nurturing both a garden and the skills needed to capture one perfect, fleeting moment.