Orchids at the Balboa Park Botanical gardens

Balboa Park is a wonderful place to visit if you're ever in San Diego. There are museums and gardens as well as the San Diego zoo. A great place with really good energy, one of the few "must see's" here in San Diego. 4 days a week they open up their shaded botanical gardens and the assortment of flowers and plants is world class. When I get the bug to shoot and can't think of anywhere else to go, I usually end up at these gardens because there's always something that catches the eye. On this day I got there right as they opened the doors and the plants were still wet from their morning showers.
My only regret with this photo is the lack of sharpness on the flower on the bottom left. I stopped it down to f/11 and thought I would end up with it being a little more in focus. Nevertheless, I like the balance and flow of the piece and maybe having it slightly out helps...or not.

D7k
Nikkor 105mm F/2.8D macro; ISO 100; f/11 @ 1/125 sec.

I went through basic training at San Diego way back in '88...Balboa Park is a great place and the San Diego Zoo has to be one of the coolest zoos in the world.

As for the photo it is fairly pleasant to look at but IMO (and please remember I am just a rank amateur gearhead mainly) it seems to be to busy for me. When I think of macro flower and insect shots I prefer just a single specimen as the subject but I know it can be done in other ways too. That lens is pretty bad@ss!

Yeah, my initial impression was, which ONE and what am I looking at?

Your gear is more than capable of rendering a high quality image, it is just a matter of composition to me.

I can't wait to get into our botanical garden to shoot.