Dandelion

[JohnRostron]

As I returned from my expedition to my compost bin, I spotted these Dandelions on my lawn. As I still had my macro lens on, I thought I would have a go at a close-up. This is probably the best of the four I took.

A pity that there was not a bee feeding on all that pollen!

Taken with my Sony A55V, with my Sigma 28-80mm macro lens at 80mm macro setting. F/16, 1/1250, ISO 800. The high ISO was because I had been peering into the shade of the compost bin and I forgot to reduce it. The only PP has been sharpening and cropping.

John

[IzzieK]

Very beautiful, John...even if there is softness in the middle. I've always looked at photographing them as we have quite a few in the back garden but I have not got around to it ... yet. I am still learning how to photograph flowers so I cannot comment on anything much about the technical but I can tell you that it will be nice to remove that spent one at the right hand side perhaps using Content Aware so the greens on the frame will all be even? Or did you really left that one there by purpose?

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[JohnRostron]

Thanks for your comments Izzie. I was trying to get various parts in focus in various shots, so that I could use focus stacking. However, all four ended up in the same focal zone. I did wonder about the unopened flower at the right, but decided to leave it in.

John

[Ziggy]

Nice catch of the lion. Hard to get the yellow right on a sunny day.

You did good.