Bone dry artichoke

Withered and beautiful (to my eye that is). What about the image?

Your thoughts are appreciated. Best wishes, Frode

Love the diagonal placement, but most of all the texture of the flowers (or pods?).  Great background.  I'm curious.....did you manipulate the background, or was it a cement surface?  It has its own texture that makes a perfect backdrop, IMO.   

I appreciate your comment. Thank you! (It is really a dried artichoke flower bud) ;-)

The background is a polished granite surface (actually a granite table top). It is out of focus due to a relatively large aperture, f/2.4 in this case. This also gave the slight vignetting that I think suits the photo.

The only thing that is "manipulated" here is the picture's frame ;-)

Frode,

Well done! you've resuscitated these two beautiful artichokes. It is a nice shot, the background works well, perhaps a contrasty framing would have brought your subject even more ( but that's just an opinion ) still it's an excellent shot.  Compliments,

Thank you for your comment Bachir. Good idea about a more contrasty framing. I will investigate more into that.