Accidental

Sometimes I scare myself. I was photographing one of the Lilac bushes in the yard, and was using a close up lens to concentrate on the blooms. I spent a fair amount of time trying differing compositions and was pretty happy with the results. And then I happened to look down! There was a dandelion at my feet, growing out of a crack in the driveway! I was surprised to see that it was in its seed stage. I wondered what it is called when the dandelion goes "white" so I looked it up in Wikipedia, perhaps my favorite online resource. Here is what it said: "The flower head matures into a spherical "clock" (also known as "wishies") containing many single-seeded fruits (achenes). Each achene is attached to a pappus of fine hairs, which enable wind-aided dispersal over long distances." I LOVE knowing stuff like this! Anyhow, I started exploring the "clock" with my closeup lens. I included the whole Dandelion in the frame. Here is where the accident happened... I used the magnify function on the LCD to see if the image was in focus, and was stunned to see how much more interesting the photograph was if I was REALLY close. So then I moved in and made this image. The accidental image, indeed!