Banksia flower

OMG THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Love the details and the wonderful bokeh too! Great composition, amazing colors, you have managed to show all of the special qualities of this blossom in one perfect image! WELL DONE!! Such an incredible beauty! :)

I wanted to say thank you for your comment on my pine needles image. You put into words what I wasn't able to convey. The reason I really love the pine needles picture is because, like you said, "The oak leaves are more visibly arresting, but I think ultimately this provides more for contemplation. A beautiful and subtle image." WONDERFULLY PUT!

You know, it's funny. I have to be careful when I say that a picture I took is beautiful or amazing because it's so easy to mistake for arrogance or perhaps being a show-off. But as you know, even though we find these incredible subjects and understand how best to showcase them for an image everyone will enjoy, it is every bit as surprising and stunning to us as it is to the visitor. As if someone hijacked our bodies, brought us on a photo shoot, took all these pictures, and then we get back and look at them on our computers and almost fall out of our chairs because of the incredible images that we're looking at! DID I TAKE THAT PICTURE???!!! You know what I mean. We are blessed. Ever since I started taking pictures, I wanted most to be able to capture images like this one. The kind that steals my heart, that takes my breath away, that have me sitting in wonderment and stunned silence while I stare in rapt amazement, drinking in every delicious detail that I so admire in a photograph...crisp details, lovely colors that dazzle, soft, artistic bokeh...marvelous perfection. It is my desire to show my subject clearly but with artistic flair and bokeh that only a higher camera and lens can give. I was able to coax lovely images out of my lower end p&s super zoom, but NOT the bokeh or rich dynamic range. THIS is what I wanted to be able to do!!

Thanks so much for your enthusiastic comments--it means so much to me because I see your pictures and want to turn into a cat and roll around in a sun spot, purring loudly. And YOU like MY pictures. Wow. Way to make my day! :) *high five*

George.... you have outdone yourself !

Absolutely Exquisite.....

Stunning capture. Well done Hugs Tess.

Thank you very much everyone for all your kind comments in response to this photo. As I've said before, we are very fortunate here to have some interesting native flowers that are quite different from the usual "garden" species. .

Super macro work!

That's Wild!!
Seen in

Wonderful World
of Wildlife!!

Thank you very much, Puzzler.

Thanks, Dave.

Very nicely done nice combination of bokeh and DOF to get the effect