As I enjoyed the delicate butterflies that surrounded me at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO, I was suddenly struck by this brilliant spiky, red plant as it stood out against the dark background. It wasn't what I expected to be photographing, but it completely captured my attention! It almost seemed to speak! This was in August 1999, and I was using a Nikon N8008s with Elitechrome 200 film. The lens was a Nikon 70-200mm with a 5T Close-Up filter. The shot was supported on a Manfrotto Carbon One tripod. The slide was scanned on a Nikon CoolScan 5000. The image was post-processed with Photoshop CS5 with some added saturation and sharpening. (by Gary Larsen)