1:1 Macro of Phalaenopsis Orchid

Phalaenopsis... Great word right? I personally have no idea how to say it but Google tells me that this is the orchid I pictured below. 

Macro photography can be a lot fun. I have decent list of lenses, but I only recently bought a macro lens - the Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM. It is an extremely sharp lens, a lot of light and great focal distance, I love using it for portrait work as well as macro photography. 

The shot above was taken on the Canon 5D, at 1/160th of a second, at an aperture of f/14.0, and an ISO of 100.  I needed to shoot at a high enough shutter speed, typically to compensate for movement but in this case it is all about making sure I don't move (especially in and out). F/14 is a very small opening with a lot of depth of field, but if you look closely not everything is in focus, which helps you draw you into what I find fascinating and surreal.  Because I wanted the least grain, and the most depth of field I used a flash. It was a Canon 580EX held off camera only barely out of the photo. 

TIP: When trying to get the tightest shot possible. Zoom your lens in all the way, and most importantly manually focus your lens to the closet setting. After you do that do not move your focus ring, move physically into focus.