It's nice to take different sorts of images of a subject sometimes. I recently had the chance to photograph a nice, freshly emerged Large White butterfly and first took some natural light shots with my Sigma 150mm and then went in close with my MP-E 65 using flash.
It's interesting to see peoples' responses to these 2 types of shots. There are some forums where natural light shots are far more appreciated than close-ups as they're seen to be more pictorial and elegantly composed (and probably more commercially marketable). However, other forums and sites like Flickr seem to prefer the 'wow' factor of the close-ups.
LIke both shots
#2 has more of a wow factor but more likely to hang #1 on a wall
Must admit I like to try and take both types of photos if possible with an amenable subject - ie a zoom series just to show some context as you have done.
Flickr is rather odd- I sometimes post crops from pics just to show the detail level and always labelled as crop from this picture but always get far more views/comments on the crop. Even had the Flickr/Getty gallery people choosing crops of pics in my gallery !
