Three stages of life

Any Thoughts?

Well done. Soft very pleasant colors. Good detail.

Good DOF. A couple of thoughts if you don't mind...

I not sure I like the main subject a way past

it's prime flower.

And I always feel that it is so darn difficult to

get backgrounds that really works with the

out of focus situation.

I keep trying but am net yet satisfied with my

backgrounds other than very dark (like black)

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your intelligent comment. I must admit that I do have a preference for the flower that is "past due" or even dead ... there often is so much character and texture at that stage. This pretty much guarantees votes from "crap to great" as the general preference here is for straight shots of flowers of which I have many on my personal web page for Liz's family and friends to show what we have in our garden. As for backgrounds ... I agree that getting a background that works is difficult, it can make or break the image, however, I do find the challenge of "hunting" for the perfect background in the garden challenging. Having said that I have also decided to occasionally drag Liz along with me to hold a background behind a flower that I find particularly interesting just so I can get the image I want. I like the black background as it suits my preferred "Caravaggio" style of image. I did see images last year where someone was using a dark lime green background that really created the effect of old botanical paintings ... I will have to put aside the clay in the studio and get out the air brushes and paints and create this colour.