You have excellent colors here, and good balance. However sharpness is critically absent. To shoot a good macro you absolutely must have a tripod. The main reason for this is that the depth of field (DOF) is amazingly narrow with macro images. If you try to do this by handholding you'll find that you can't keep the camera steady enough to snap the shot with focus on the critical part. Also, to try and boost DOF you will want to shoot at a slower shutter speed so apeture can be smaller (higher numbered f-stop, often over f11 for most of these). To get that kind of small f-stop you need a shutter speed that is way too slow to allow hand-holding of the camera. Hence the tripod. Remember that for a steep learning curve you need to keep a notebook recording your shooting data (f-stop, shutter speed, film speed, etc) on each image so you can refer back later to decide what happened.
By the way, regarding comments to others, go for it! Most of the best photographers here want to know how the shot makes you FEEL. You don't need to be a good photographer to tell the shooter that. Technical critique is often overrated, and often not wanted.
Honest opinion is no problem. The color is quite good . . . rich and well saturated. You should have, though, in my opinion, a much clearer image, and the blossom, though beautiful, has a soft focus. You also have some negative space on the left side that does nothing for the subject and which detracts from the composition . . . pulling in the left side crop would throw the bloom off-center and improve the shot a great deal.
Regards, Doyle I <~~~~~
PS . . . While you may not feel qualified to critique other people's work . . . you should be aware that the time your images are on the front page of recent pictures is very short. I have seen very good pictures come and go with little or no comment. If, on the other hand, you mention to others that you "like this" or "don't understand or like this" on their pictures -- or if you ask questions . . . your name comes up to them AND every person who sees their pictures. Many people make it a point to comment on photos for ANYONE who comments to them. By reading these other comments, making comments, and getting comments . . . UF will work wonders for you. But you need to make and receive comments. Your critiques to others will improve as you do.
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{K:101119} 7/10/2006
