Pond Flower

This flower grows in our pond, name unknown, usually does not do very well however this year its bloomin fantastic ( pardon the pun). I have been comparing the sharpness of my images compared to those I see on Blip and I find that my images aren't as sharp as they could be. is it my camera, is it me, do I rely on the auto focus too much.
Questions and more questions.
I set my camera auto focus to manual and have had a go manually. like in the old days. You know I miss the split prisim that used to be on the film slr's. may be its my eyes is that focused????? mmm the eyes aren't what they used to be.