Tracey, I hear you with the pink OT's. Overall there are probably too many similar plants around, especially if they happen to get bleached out by the sun and high temperatures as that will make them all look much more similar. On the other hand I guess we should be thankful for the variety we do get. Now if they just could breed in a few more spots in the OT's, I'd be very happy!
I used to take a lot of pictures a few years ago as a hobby and was very into it and therefore I invested in a reasonable camera for the time, but it's old by today's standards. However a good lens is never getting old and basically I always use a tripod when photographing plants together with manual focus. Actually I often use two tripods as I mount a flexible arm on one tripod to hold either the plant still (if it's windy)or hold it in the position I want, or I use it to hold distractions out of the frame. Sometimes I also wish that I was an octopus as that would help a lot!
Then I want the best light so I try to photograph in the evening or the early morning. Then we have the whole issue of post processing, the white balance, color, contrast, sharpening and so on. In particular an image needs sharpening or additional sharpening (if it already is sharpened in camera)when it's reduced in size as it otherwise is going to look way softer than necessary.
So all of these parts contribute to the final result. All this can also take some of the fun out of the process, so nowadays I do try to take things a bit easier, but still I can't completely let it go. I do enjoy photographing lilies very much as it's a lot different than the bug hunting/ photographing at higher magnifications I used to do.
Several well known breeders have lots of different OT varieties with spots 'in the works' right now. From what I've seen though, It's overwhelming with various pink colors.
