These water lily images were shot in Quail Botanical Gardens located north of San Diego.
Shot using a tripod mounted Canon 70-200mm L lens to provide reasonable zoom reach necessary for the ~8-10foot distance of the lily in the pond. Perched myself on the side of the pond and noticed if I lifted my tripod to its max height, I could view the lily against a pure reflection of the blue sky we had that day. Anything lower and various tree reflections interfered. I was going for the purest shot of a lily and it's reflection as I could. I put my camera into shutter lock and 10s delay modes to minimize vibration. This enabled me to leave the shutter open for about 1/2 second at F/14. And for the final touch, I used my pocket wizard remote controlled 550EX flash with a snoot to reach out as far over the pond as I could and pop some flash into the center of the lily design to ensure I achieved the best DOF. I'm extremely pleased with this and the other lily shots I posted here.