Locally these are known as 'Little devils farts' C&C

[JBW]

[tamccain]

the focus seems to be off to me. the whole image seems soft.

[JBW]

the focus seems to be off to me. the whole image seems soft.

I know it looks that way. However these are very soft flowers. if you go to a larger size you will notice that the water droplets in the center are in focus.

[Geoff F]

Yes the closest part of the flower is in focus but the problem is that the majority of petals are out of focus which tends to make the whole scene appear soft.

No easy answer though. Another of those close focus issues. The only options are narrow apertures with lenses which give plenty of focus depth or stacking of several shots with different focus points.

Sometimes you can find a suitable angle, possibly with tight cropping, where the lack of sharp focus depth isn't a serious problem but difficulties will always arise with some flowers.

Bugs are difficult enough to get everything sharp; but flowers are in a league of their own!

This, together with exposure and correct colour difficulties, causes most of my flower photos to get ditched.

[JBW]

and throw in a saturation of red and orange to the pot too.

[nimitzbenedicto]

very interesting shots.