As you can see, the closeup lens arrived.
I was looking around for something stable to shoot, because extreme closeups don't go well when there's movement -- it degrades focus. So I was after rocks or tree limbs, that sort of thing. I didn't get far out of the house before I spotted this hibiscus bud. Back in Colden, I made a head-on zinnia bud shot that I always liked, and so going for the head-on hibiscus was attractive. There was a light wind, but I thought I had a chance.
This is a 1:1 shot, meaning that the image on the camera's sensor was the same size as the bud. You don't get a lot in focus at 1:1, but I managed to get the whorl to behave. I thought that was the most striking part of the bud.
Are you thinking Georgia O'Keeffe? Go ahead. I wasn't. Well, maybe. Eye of the beholder, and all that.
I could never have made this shot without a focusing rack -- this is a device you need for extreme close-ups. You set the focus first, and then move the camera to bring whatever you're shooting into focus. I was going to make a shot of the setup, but I thought that would be way too nerdy.
Later, I'll practice something called "focus stacking," which would have let me put more of the bud into focus. But this was the first day.