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I very much like the echo effect here, with the background flower mirroring the foreground, adding tension by being tangential to it. I like the way you've focused, so that the details are sharp but not distracting.

 

(I'm not sure why you're getting some outlining. Note especially what seems to be a dark line around the top yellow petal. Digital has a tendency to do that when going from one strong color to another or from bright to dark, but certain things we do in post process can add to that effect and it's just something to watch out for.)

The outlining in this case is probably my doing... a bit too much sharpening. Where I've noticed the most digital noise with my D200 is transitioning from an intense red or purple to the background. I recently shot a strongly purple petunia against a wooden deck, and despite an APO EX lens with aspherical elements, I got some surprisingly prominent blue fringing on the front edge (visually near edge) and red fringing on the back side. I'm waiting for a chance to simulate the situation and try different settings.

 

Getting back to this one... I'm glad you like the echo blossom. I saw it as you described, and took some care in lining it up. What I'd most like to see here would be a slightly deeper DoF to more comfortably and sharply take in the whole, primary blossom. Notes to myself... Thank you, Fred, for stopping by and leaving a much appreciated comment.

It's funny you make the comment about a deeper DOF. I was originally going to comment that a shallower DOF might add depth to the main flower in addition to the depth already established between the main flower and the background. I didn't suggest that because I felt fairly strongly that your vision wanted to see the flower itself all strongly in focus, certainly a reasonable vision. There are other ways to get a little more three-dimensional feel into the main flower, however, especially shooting distance and angle, and lighting. I don't think you'd have to use focus alone to get separate planes to read. I know Ian (Cox-Leigh) is a master at getting that separation of fields of view and establishing great depth in his flower shots. He seems often to register an important middle ground in his photos. Gordon also does a great job of that.

Ian and Gord are both photographers and artists whose work I greatly admire. So, it will be a pleasure to go through both of their portfolios with depth and separation of fields in my mind. I love that there are always more ways to look and to see new and different aspects of photos.

 

There's no doubt that a narrower DoF would add depth to the flower by giving it more of a front and back, and I've used that before with nice results. On this one, isolating a plane in the primary flower would add depth I'm pretty sure. With the assumption/presumption that the echoing flower provided enough depth, I was thinking only about having all of the primary as crisp as possible. Now, you've got me thinking that adding depth to the primary would likely have the effect of making the transition from near to far less abrupt and more continuous. If so, that would tend to make the whole image more cohesive and stronger. I have more flower shooting to do!

The best part is, there will always be more to shoot and a different way to shoot it. Exciting!