A Strange (even for my garden) albeit beautiful red flower

[JBW]

the solid purple part will eventually mature into the red tubes.

[Shadowman]

Looks like a scientific experiment, nicely captured.

[JBW]

Looks like a scientific experiment, nicely captured.

Butterflies and Sunbirds enjoy the nectar.

[Geoff F]

Over exposure hotspots have been nicely subdued.

The image does look better at full screen size.

If you could manage it, I suspect this is one of those scenes which would work really well with a bit of focus stacking.

[JBW]

Over exposure hotspots have been nicely subdued.

The image does look better at full screen size.

If you could manage it, I suspect this is one of those scenes which would work really well with a bit of focus stacking.

the closest i have is depth merge in Gimp and it tends to darken the background. If i had had the camera on the tripod I wouldn have tried some HDR.

[Stagecoach]

Good one Brian. The DoF works perfectly well with this shot, we see enough to tell us exactly what the flower is like along with its principal parts emphasised.

[JBW]

Good one Brian. The DoF works perfectly well with this shot, we see enough to tell us exactly what the flower is like along with its principal parts emphasised.

I have been trying to get a good shot of this for two years. This is the best so far.