(+4 insets!) (please view large!)

I am having so much fun posting pictures from our trip down to San Anselmo to visit my brother Brian and his wife Nathalie. Every day I get to work on a few more images and it's wonderful to wander through the photos and decide which one(s) to post today. As I look through them, I am reminded of what was going through my mind when I took the pictures.

Today's choice was growing on a bush on Nathalie's patio. These flowers are very small but so bright and pretty that you can't help noticing them. When standing away from them, they aren't all that distinctive, but when you crouch down and take a good look, why…"THEY HAVE PURPLE EARS!!" I couldn't help exclaiming in glee and beamed at the lovely little blossoms.

These flowers are also an extremely challenging prospect for a macro photographer. There's a reason I chose the side view as my main image: it's completely in focus. This type of flower, with its long tube shape and sort of a flat face, makes it easy to show excellent detail of the front part of the blossom. But if you're close to the flower, good luck on getting the whole tube in focus! For example, one of my insets is a face-on view and my aperture was set to 22. The back is out of focus! Not intended! *cry*

One solution to get crisp focus is to back up a bit and get another aperture set. If you really want to be sure, you'll have to back up a bit more and get another set. (Aperture set: an identical picture of a subject taken at each aperture through a range, or one picture per several apertures through a range) However, by backing up you run the risk of a picture that cannot be cropped as tightly as you want if you back up too far. Also, the background is also going to lose that lovely bokeh you're after. Likewise, the higher the aperture number, the sharper the background is going to be. Basically, one needs to experiment a lot and fill your camera card in the process. Personally, there's only so many pictures I want to look through so I crossed my fingers when I took my dozen or so attempts. I didn't nail the focus for the whole flower at either an angle or head on, but I did get entire crispness for the side view so I'm happy. Providing a couple of extra pictures shows this entire, gorgeous flower and thus, a successful presentation for all of you to enjoy! :)

(I'm also including a couple of insets of yesterday's sunrise and the night before's sunset!)

Pam, I wouldn't be surprised if you had these flowers growing in your garden. Then again, they can be hard to get established so maybe not? They are deer-resistant though! They are also fabulous for attracting insects and hummingbirds. It would be so nice to have them here but I refuse to have another garden due to our low amount of water and fighting with the ground squirrels. I hope you have had a nice day my dear! :)

Explored on 1/13/19, highest placement, #2.