Centering Down

The Hellebores in the 'Railway Border' are out and beautiful, though they hang their heads (so I brought a bloom inside to photograph) and their edges quickly go brown. I wanted to get right into the Centre of the flower. "Centring Down is Quakerspeak for the technique of becoming quiet and still and silent as the Meeting moves into silence " (from a Quaker publication about their meetings).

I find the idea of quietening oneself down to consider some created 'being' enhances my sense not only of the 'thing' in itself, but of my own being within Creation. Can one do this photographically?

Technically, I tried Focus Stacking, but this time it failed completely. Have to find out why. So I tried to take just one shot, at 'best' aperture to get as much in focus, which turned out to be f11 at 1/80th, ISO 800, on my 100mm lens. Should I have gone to flash?