Monarch Madness

Capturing the madness of the majestic monarch migration just might be the most fun I’ve had with my camera in 2026. While I was out shooting, I knew that future me was going to hate going through the hundreds and hundreds of photos I was taking but I just couldn’t take my finger off of the shutter button. Out of the mountain of monarch photos I got that weren’t wildly out of focus or extremely repetitive, these are my favorites.

These monarchs were on an incredible migration where they are capable of traveling around 100 miles a day and up to 3,000 miles south to central Mexico for better weather. These migratory monarchs have a longer life span of 6 to 9 months unlike the summer generations that live for only 2 to 5 weeks. If mortality makes you hungry, just know that monarchs would not make for a good choice of protein since they eat only milkweed when they are caterpillars, making them poisonous to predators. And they’re bugs, so.

Welcome to Monarch Madness.