Originally Posted by
Inkanyezi
Brian, I am often impressed by your images, but there's one feature of this one that I find disconcerting. It probably is a property of your lens that contributes it, and this type of bokeh is what made me try umpteen lenses for close-up photo until I found the lovely Rodenstock Trinar lens, which has the creamiest bokeh of all my lenses.
The stamen and stigma of the farther away flower draw my attention to it, and not in a pleasant way, because of the bokeh, which is inherent to the lens; hence something you cannot do anything about other than finding a lens that is better in this regard. However, knowing the problem is a good thing, as there is often an option not to get disturbing objects into the image, perhaps choosing another angle, if not simply "tidying up", which many photographers do, removing objects that are best left out of the picture.
And yes, in a way this is a material sport, and sometimes another piece of equipment can be the answer to an urge for a better(?) image. Before running off to buy something, I think the properties should be studied, and there are many places on the web that display just how the images will come out with particular lenses.