I thought I might enter the challenge as the light was so amazing yesterday...although it was still terribly cold. Any help would be very much appreciated. I know the composition is rather clunky, but the plant was being a pain and I didn't want to damage it trying to rearrange it.

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Really beautiful.... the DOF on this is awesome....

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com

In a book of one of the best nature-photographers over here, the author never tires of telling, that one should not rearrange nature itself. We should show her as she is, not how we think she should look like. Of course, this doesn't apply to still-lives and the like but that's not nature and it's not declared as nature. So i like it very much when you say you didn't want to damage anything for this is the worst method of rearranging! To the shot itself: .. i don't think the compo is that bad. To me, as i like it as sharp as it could get, it just think that a shorter shutter time or a higher aperture (dunno if this is motion blur or a matter of DOF) could help a little? What i do like is the colours and that light-effects in the background. Well done!! :)

@ Michelle...ty...I love the Sigma macro...just pushing it down to f2.8 results in such wonderful effects...had never dreamed of them before. @ my fellow Raven...it's DOF rather than motion blur. 1/350sec exposure...f2.8. I wanted the window to blur to get the odd effect, and as it was handheld, I didn't want the exposure to be too long. I know what you mean about the sharpness, though...with the larger image, you can tell that it's very sharp on the very edge of the foremost bloom, but the rest of the flower loses this sharpness. The next day I have some sun...if they're still alive by then lol...I'll reshoot with a higher f-stop and post the reworked image. Thanks, as always, for your help. Best wishes