Bishop's cap

Wow, now that's super close for sure! Excellent detail in the flower and good choice of small aperture to get the bloom so sharp. I think it would work very well framed vertically. The focus falloff on the stem wouldn't take away from the image as the tiny bloom is the star of the show.

That is really getting in there, Skip.  Very nicely done though, with great detail where it matters. 

skip,

Awesome photo--I've tried to get these, but usually too much wind. The square comp and the flower has lots of detail present. Well done.........................Jim

That is one crazy flower, Skip.  It's easy to see why you went to "great lengths" to get it to fill the frame.  One caveat, with using extension tubes is that all lenses have design limits whereby if you go to too much magnification everything starts to get soft.  That often happens as you approach 2:1 magnification, which means that the length of extension tubes is approaching the focal length of the lens.  I don't see any of that here and the flower's shape is awesome.  Are those "antlers" the petals?

Mark,  thanks for your comments.  Yes the "antlers" are the petals.  Thanks too,  for the info on the extension tubes.  FYI, the total of my tubes is 68mm, placed on my 105 macro lens for this shot.

I know this plant and how tiny the flower is - very good work getting it sharp and excellent dof - just the right amount to capture details in the petals and keep the bg soft. Well done.

Skip,  I've used a very similar combination (100 mm macro + 68 mm ext. tubes) and they're fine with the possible exception of going to minimum working distance of the lens/ET combination.  You can verify that for yourself by taping a page of print flat and taking photos at different working distances (camera on a tripod & mirror lock-up, of course...).  Then watch the sharpness and contrast at 1:1 magnification.

Thats a gorgeous piece of work., Sometimes micro images and throw up a lot of surprises. Very well thought of and executed image.

Balan Vinod