Thank you, John, Jim and Eric.
John, the lens was an Olympus 60mm (120 equivalent) macro. I was walking down a street in a small eastern Cascade foothills town in late afternoon when I noticed this backlit group of flowers and birch tree near the sidewalk, with more flowers in the distant background. Somehow I saw instantly in my mind what I wanted the final picture to be, with most elements out of focus. So I set the lens to wide open (f/2.8 ) and focused so that most foreground and background elements were blurred. A strong wind was whipping the plants around, which also helped. And to top it off, I added a bit of ICM to the mix. The captured image still had a few more details than I wanted, but after a little processing with Topaz Simplify and Impressions, it came out pretty much as I had envisioned it.
I know; TLDR, right?
