Still working at it ...
Douglas, I took your advice and removed the Gary Fong diffuser and changed the 580 EXII to 1/4 power.
I held the flash in one hand and tried to achieve focus by setting the lens on the MFD and then moved the camera around until I had what I thought was good focus.
I am in north Florida and it is a little windy here today plus as you can see we are covered with pollen.
What is your opinion?
New photo = Not too shabby! Your focus does not look too bad, nor your DoF.
I do not recall telling you to ditch the Gary Fong diffuser. I actually like softbox illumination. Try a few photos with & without for comparison.
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