Flying Flowers is an exquisite collection of intimate and up-close images of living butterflies by renowned nature photographer Rick Sammon. A mediation and celebration of one of nature's most beautiful creatures, Flying Flowers takes the reader on a visual journey into the miracle of transformation. The butterfly, with its amazing metamorphosis from a crawling caterpillar into a vivid and graceful winged creature, symbolizes the infinite potential within every living creature to evolve: from darkness into light, ugliness into beauty, lethargy into activity. The life of a butterfly is a coming of age story in the most profound sense. As such an exotic metaphor for transcendence and renewal, the butterfly has been celebrated in art, literature, dance, fashion, myth, and spirituality throughout history and in cultures around the world.

Using groundbreaking digital photography, Sammon offers us a new view of these delicate insects in their natural habitat. "The ability to see every shot immediately on my camera's LCD monitor allowed me to make critical exposure and lighting adjustments on site," explains Sammon. "That was of the utmost importance, due to subject movement, changing lighting conditions and the reflectivity of some of the butterflies."

The result of over a year's work on the subject, these luminous portraits come together in Flying Flowers like a Technicolor bouquet. From Mourning Cloaks to Hummingbird Moths, dozens of species are represented and identified with brief informational captions. Photographed in extreme close-up and stunning detail during all stages of life-emerging from the cocoon, taking flight, migrating in mass, or simply perched momentarily on a bloom or branch-Sammon's butterflies flutter across the page in a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of wings eyes, legs, and antennae.