Macro DSLR Speed Challenge #26 "Flower"

Wow, that was unexpected! Thanks, John! This was kind of a "Hail Mary Pass," I gotta admit... I saw the awesome photos of really amazing-looking flowers and thought "I don't even know where I can find such interesting-looking flowers! All I have around here is weeds!" But I had snapped this one earlier in the spring... yes, it was a weed (er, wildflower?) growing just outside my backyard. Here is the original, totally uncropped...

You can see that there were streaks of pink on the outside petals (?) and I wanted to crop those out to end up with a monochromatic image. Hence, the square crop. That flower just really caught my eye, it just looked like you could fall into it.... I took quite a few shots of it trying to get the right one with respect to the DOF and where the DOF fell. So I was pleased when I got this one shot that captured that "falling into it" feeling. But when I saw all the amazing shots that had already been entered, I thought I needed to do something a little experimental to make it stand out. Composition is one of my weaknesses... most of my shots are pretty bland, straightforward, dead-center, and lacking in the impact department... it's something I have to work on. You can tell even in just the entries this week, there are much more interesting compositions.

I loved brecklundin's shot... wow, the light coming through the back, it looks like some crazy lantern or something. Lester Wareham's shot is amazing once you know how small that flower is. In Flo's shot, I love how the sunflower parts (lol, botany is not my strong suit!) look like a big shag carpet or something. Such a great texture there. In gcflora's shot, wow what an interesting flower, it looks like an alien with eye stalks or something! Great composition too. In dreamline's shot I loved the hairs along the stalk, and the sunlight casting the shadows of the internal flower parts on to the petals. lavanut's shot REALLY gets you close, and the water adds a cool touch, and the composition is nice. My favorite of the bunch though is FireDragon's -- love the dandilion shot! I love the detail in the seed pods showing through the transparent whiteness of the fuzzy parts like a sheer curtain. atmianzo's shot had some awesome colors, perhaps the best of the bunch. I really love the dreamy OOF parts of macroshot's photo -- nice composition too with the light purple flowers and the deep green background. I love the dark colors in Paul Li's shot. irispatch's shot -- wow. Awesome and kind of scary! A perfect capture, the spider is in just the right spot to make a great photo. Crazie Cricket's dogwood shot is my 2nd favorite of the bunch -- I love the side-on view and how it works with the DOF. Also, the interaction of the colors is really nice. Geno DM's shot has beautiful colors and I love being able to see the pollen grains. Strong composition as well.

Well, sorry for making this so long-winded. I will make the new DSLR Speed Challenge thread right now. The topic will be "Button". I will post a link in this thread when I've created the new thread. I hope to see you all submit entries!