I see that you are a member of the Cadre and occasionally post two shots a day. I am not a member of the Cadre and only comment on one. Please don't take it personally, Kathy. I feel privileged that you allow us lower echelon peons to comment on your Cadre shots at all.

Beautifully focus on the lower waterlily. I am a bit surprised at the angle of the shot. There seem to be two possible explanations. Either you were with Superman or in a helicopter and hovered over the pond, or secondly the pond was vertical and on a wall. This alternative naturally assumes that there is no gravity at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

I know that there are a few individuals on Caedes who seemingly live in another galaxy or perhaps another dimension. However, from my past visits to the gardens in Chicago, I know that part of the galaxy has gravity. I will make a third assumption...that you were on a bridge.

Lovely shot. If only we had water around here.

BEAUTIFUL SHOT,

GREAT WORK WELL DONE

The point of sharpest focus is the spotted lily pad to the right pf the closest flower, which is a bit surprising, considering the bright lighting.A couple of possibilities for the rather extreme shallow depth of field would be if you zoomed in on this, the longer focal length would significantly reduce the depth of field.
A low ISO setting could also create a similar result.
If you are using 100 ISO or lower, use a wider angle lens setting to cover a much larger area than you actually want, and then radically crop it to the area you require. The depth of field will be significantly greater.
They are a very pretty color, Kathy.

Kathy this is a seldom seen color of the water lily,they do have some at the my favorite place the calendar gardens. I see some advice was given to you, I have raised my ISO setting on my camera, at his advice. That said, I do like this one, wonderful color. Tigs♥ =^..^=

Such beautiful lighting on them!! Great shot Kathy!!!

Those are very pretty water lilies Kathy. There are some at Decatur, Alabama Wheeler National Wildlife Preserve but they are too far from the road to get a good close-up. I would have to boat to them. They are a different type of water lily though. These are different and beautiful. Just play around with different setting until you get the desired effect. I was told once that landscape mode works well when you are wanting more in focus. It's worth a shot.

You caught some beautiful lighting Kathy which brought some gorgeous color .
Nicely done .

Beautiful angel and capture plus post work. Is the shadow you looking down on the lilies

A lovely capture of the waterlilies ... love the lighting & color contrasts. Beautifully captured, Kathy.

Would that shadow be your big old head in the scene? A nice top down angle in your photo Kathy. Lovely colours and lighting in the image.