My garden peaks around the third week in July, and though purple coneflowers and ordinary phlox (both natives, btw) are rather humdrum compared to some of the showy daylilies I grow, this is a case where a random end-of-the-day shot spoke to me.

Sony ILCE-7c (A7c) with sony 90mm macro; 22Jul22, approx 19:43, f/2.8, +0.3ev, 1/100s, ISO 125, cloudy setting; minor cropping and scaling.

I have discovered that sometimes —just occasionally, mind you—I prefer a large DOF, so I cranked that up for this version. Aaaaaaaand, I didn't like it. But because I'm a sloppy photographer, and it often takes me 2–3 efforts to get a shot right, and I wasn't paying attention when I grabbed the image to edit, I selected this one by mistake first. And since I put the effort in (like, all two minutes of it) I decided to throw it in, on the theory that perhaps some of you might prefer this version:

Sony ILCE-7c (A7c) with sony 90mm macro; 22Jul22, approx 19:43, f/9.0, +0.3ev, 1/100s, ISO 1250, cloudy setting; minor cropping and scaling.

It certainly points up the rattiness of the oldest bloom's petals, (2nd from the left) giving the image a greater sense of age and grittiness.

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