A very cool feature of the Canon G11 is its “Macro” function. I’m not exactly sure how close the lens can be to the subject and still focus, but one to two inches away focuses pretty much every time. However, getting a “keeper” close-up, especially handheld, is a bit of a crap shoot. My method: take six to ten shots and hope for a good one. I think this very tight shot of the sexy bits of a red tulip that just bloomed next to our driveway is a good one. The image is virtually straight from the camera–no color or saturation tweaks, no black point or contrast boosts, no overlaying of layers, no clone tooling of fly specks. I did crop it slightly on the bottom and left side, but that was the extent of the post processing.

Camera settings: Manual mode, Macro function, 6.1mm, 1/125 second at f/4.0, ISO 100.

Canon G11 getting real close.