California natives

All of these plants all California natives.  They only use 1/7th of the water that grass needs.  Most important they attract butterflies, which brings caterpillars, which brings birds.

I took this with a 135mm with a  DC (defocus control) adjustment with the pink Alum Root to be in focus.  


You should almost never have out-of-focus objects in front of your subject or in the foreground. It looks unnatural and weird. Our eyes naturally focus on the closest thing to us, so it's uncomfortable when a photo has a soft foreground or other distractions which our eyes can't bring into focus. But I make my own rules. 


The effects of this defocus control are very subtle.  When used properly, the 135 DC turns backgrounds into the softest, smoothest washes of color. Leave the Defocus Image Control ring at zero, and the 135 DC is super sharp. If you adjust it to the aperture you are shooting, you get great bokeh.