"Rose Mandala" by Eric Rennie

I have to confess I never paid much attention to flowers until I began photographing them closeup using a macro lens.  Then I discovered what lay hidden in plain sight.  How to capture their intricate beauty?  My solution, as it turns out, is the same as the painter Georgia O'Keefe's: make them big.   Here's what O'Keefe wrote on the subject: "...Nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small....So I said to myself — I’ll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."