3rd Ever photo taken with T3i

Here is the 3rd photo taken with my T3i and the kit lens it came with. I am new to DSLR so feedback is nice. Also, I have no experience with post. Thank you in advance.

Nice bee capture, but I'd bump up contrast / clarity.

The light is kind of patchy - sun here, shadow there - which kind of hurts the image.

it looks pretty soft.

Nissanfairladyz32 wrote in post #16919544
it looks pretty soft.

Thinking the same thing. Also, look up the "Rule of 3rd's". We were all beginners and we all started by placing the subject dead center in the composition. By following rule of 3rd's you will see a huge difference in the composition of your photos.
The only other thing I can say is take lots of photos and play with your preferred processing method. DPP is a great tool when you are learning, but there are plenty of others ones out there that will do more with less time and effort.
Just keep shooting and your skills will grow quickly.

I'd agree on the softness comments.

Areas with a combination of shade and sun are difficult for cameras due to the large dynamic range. So it could actually be better to shoot such areas, as the case of your flowers, on cloudy days, and you'll get a little bit better color saturation.

thank you.. ever occurred to shoot on cloudy days for flowers. And thank you all for the critiques thus far.

EXIF shows aperture: f/5.6, exposure: 0.0003 s (1/3200), ISO: 1600
I don't see any reason why you need ISO 1600. ISO 100 (1/200 sec) should work fine.

Good catch Morph. I never thought to look at the exif. You could have dropped your shutter to around 1/200th and gotten closer to ISO 100 in this shot and still kept the shutter fast enough for the shot.
That higher ISO can introduce noise at that level. I tried never to shoot about 1600 ISO on that body.

Morph is right: try to shoot as low ISO as you can. With flowers in the wild (may be some wind movement) you'll be OK with that suggested shutter speed of 1/200.
Shoot RAW and in post processing (with Lightroom or Photoshop ) you can correct the exposure. As also suggested try to get the main subject that you want to show or draw attention out of the centre - either to the left or to the right (rule of thirds).
When shooting flowers I always try to get the various stages in the frame (bud, full bloom and slightly withered in the background).

I did a quick edit (some highlight reduction, a bit of more contrast and some sharpening).

wow, I see a huge difference. Thank you all for the feedback. I am heading to Yellowstone Park in the morning, hoping I can use some of my new found knowledge. I am also trying out a 400mm L. I will post what I think is my best. Again, thank you all for you help and advice.