Full Bloom

A side long view at the underside of a white flower in full bloom.

Another image from my walk around the communal gardens near the house is Spain in June. This is not the first time time I have decided to look underneath the flower head and capture the finer details there. The white petals really help the flower stand out from the background and the extremely shallow depth-of-field of around 2mm takes it a step further.

I always find shooting macro images handheld very challenging, particularly something like a flower swaying in the wind. You are typically dealing with depths-of-field of 1 to 3mm so any movement will throw out your intended focus point. Patience is the key though. Set yourself up with the image you wish to capture visualised in your minds eye. Stay very steady and manually focus the camera. Breath out and shoot off a series of 4 to 6 images. Depending on the wind one of those images should contain what you were looking for. Oh and always be sure to look all around you viewfinder, in every corner so your aware of everything that will be in the frame.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 100mm
ISO Speed: 200