is this my best ever?

Not wishing to sound as if I'm tooting my own horn, but over the past however many years I have taken the off good photograph.  How does that saying go about monkeys and keyboards? There have also been plenty of stinkers in that time too.

But the image I want to share with you today is quite possibly right up there with the very best I've ever taken.  A bold claim, I know.

And it was taken with a camera I'm not at all familiar with, as it's one on loan from a good friend as I decide whether to invest in one in the future.  It's an Olympus micro four-thirds camera, famed for its macro image making capabilities.

Anyway, here's the shot:

Olympus OM-D E-M1, Olympus M-Zuiko 30mm f3.5 macro lens
1/30th of a second at f5.6, ISO 200
tripod, self-timer release
15-shot focus bracket stacked using Helicon Focus

As you can plainly see, it's a top-down shot of a dandelion I'd found on the roadside, and I poked it through a few leaves to give the background.  I then shot fifteen images focused throughout the scene but leaving the, erm, leaves soft.  The bracketed images were then stacked in Helicon Focus before final processing using Adobe Lightroom software.

What do you think of it?  Is there a future for me in photography?  Don't answer that!

Oh yes, before I go, don't forget the advent videos started yesterday so please pop along and watch. You never know, there might be even more photographs to look at there as the month progresses.