Random rose
A flower arrangement set is a prime target to make some nice photos of, certainly now with the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens that I recently got for my 450D.
So far, love taking photos with it, even though it’s quite challenging to get sharp results at times due to the shallow depth of field and its sensitivity.
This flower set had some nice roses that looked peculiar since the exterior of their petals were white and the interior was a shade of pinkish red. Oddly some of the flower’s edges looked burnt or already withered.
That mix of white, soft red and black did create a nice effect on the flower though.
Alas the lighting wasn’t terrific that day, wish there would have been more sunlight.
Pretty glad how these turned out but they could have been better, the flower’s color is a little saturated in the first photo and in the second one the focus on the middle of the flower isn’t perfect, the outer petals are sharper in focus.
Practice makes perfect!
Made more photos of other flowers in that set, will share those later on.
Blue Blue Wave 
Nice subject, but they both look a bit blurry ^^; If you used autofocus, the depth of the rose petals may have thrown off the focus. Sometimes manual focus is the better option when shooting close up macro photos. Even if you’re not using a tripod, moving the camera itself may work better than autofocus, at least for stationary objects.
@Anony
I usually use manual focus, the autofocus on the 100mm is hard to get it to focus on exactly what you want. The first rose actually has sharp focus on some of the petal edges, but the depth of field is so narrow the rest blurs already. Tricky!
How did freehand shooting with the 100mm work out for you?
Nice Job!
I wish I could say more about this but my lack of photograpgy knowledge prevents me from douing so
Shooting handheld works as long as you can keep a moderately fast shutter speed. Hard to do when you want a narrow aperture. Just got to find a nice middle ground with a decently fast shutter, narrow aperture, and a reasonable ISO. I definitely prefer a tripod for macro shots though 😉
@Blowfish
Your photographing skills seem fine though judging by your figure shoots. ^^
@Anony
Yes, tried shooting images like these without a tripod but it didn’t work out well, so will keep to the tripod for now. ^^
I’d say the only complaint I have, is that the first photo is just painfully pink – just a bit too saturated ^_^;
@Michael
What, isn’t it like Aerosmith says, “Pink it´s not even a question” XD