I have a few photos to post from my workshop this past week at Block Creek Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country.

There is a really neat little wildflower just on the Edwards Plateau commonly called the scarlet leatherflower.

I photographed it mid-day, with a lot of wind, and that made it a bit of a challenge. The mid-day sun problem was easy, I just threw a big diffuser over it to create really soft light.

As for the wind, I decided to go for the soft focus (and high shutter speed) shot, with just a bit of the flower actually in focus.  I put a 2x teleconverter on my 180mm macro to really soften the image up and minimize the depth of field.

Scarlet Leatherflower

Scarlet leather flower (Clematis texensis), Block Creek Natural Area, Hill Country region, Texas, USA. Native only to the southeastern Edwards Plateau in Texas. Canon 1Dx. 180mm macro + 2x teleconverter.ISO 500. 1/160 sec. @ f.7.1. EV +1 1/3. No flash.