This is a luna moth, and they are native to the central and eastern portions of the U.S. Unlike butterflies, moths typically open their wings and hold them in a flat plane when they are at rest. This makes photographing them much easier. Depth of field is always a challenge with both butterflies and moths; it's typical to get their heads and bodies in focus with the wings, especially the tips of the wings, out of focus. However, with a flat plane like this, simply angle the camera such that the plane of the digital sensor is as parallel as possible with the plane of the insect's wings. Then even with a relatively large lens aperture, you will have enough depth of field to encompass the wing span and the moth's body. My settings for this shot were 1/160, f/32, and 1000 ISO. I shot this from above looking down on the moth, and I used a small aperture to insure all parts of the insect were as sharp as possible.
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