COMMENTS:
 

Neal R Thompson MD	Great colors, very vibrant. The green stem on the left of the print is somewhat distracting. Remove the dot of on the back green leaf. That leaf could also be sharper.
Dennis Hirning, EPSA	Usually you try to keep your subject away from the center but in this case it works this way because the lack of symmetry in the bloom keep this from being static. I don't know if it is the Auto Enhance gives this the look of being over sharpened. Usually with an image that I know will probably be projected or be shown on a black background, I will add a little stroke to keep the viewer's eye on the image. I am not sure what you are using but I think that Elements as well as Photoshop allow you to do this under Edit after you have selected the whole area.
John Roach	Please don't feel out of your element. We are all here learning and some of us are at different levels in our procession. Indeed, a couple of years ago I knew absolutely nothing about digital post-processing. So stick to it, and use the PSA resources and others that are available via the Internet, and you will be rewarded. Regarding your image it is colorful and very interesting. It has good potential, I think learning something about how to both through the camera get a shallower depth of field or in post-processing through the use of layers and masks create some shallow depth of field or bokeh, as some call, would tone down the distracting elements of the background. The flower itself is very lovely, has fine detail, and by placing it off center a little or orienting it a little to avoid center straight up and down view will enhance it immeasurably.
Sol Blechman	Welcome Martha. We are glad to have you join us. The part of your image that works well, for me, is the top half with the black background. The lower half is more distracting and most of all is that the foreground colors on the flower are burned out most likely from the source of your light. I question your use of "Auto Enhance". Is that Photoshop? Anyway, perhaps using more manual controls instead of "Auto" would give you better control over those hot spots.
Shahron Williams von Rooij	You've got some very popping colors, textures and light effects here that make this image quite interesting. A bit more background blurring would make this really stand out.
Mohamed Terzaki	Under exposed photo usually give a feel of ancient because of it grains or noise. Some time I intentionally underexpose a portrait to make it look older. For macros it not a good idea since the purpose of macro photography is to capture details. The power in this shoot is the lung like colorful leaf its interesting, I would like to see other angles of this plant.

Member Bio

Martha Mitchem - Biography   Married to my husband, Bill for 60 years as of Sept. 30, 2011. We have five children, all married. 7 granddaughters, 3 grandsons. One great granddaughter. We are retired high school teachers (1988) from the Rangely School District. I have always enjoyed photography on my own. Probably the first real eye opener came when we enrolled in a class through Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood Springs, CO. "Taking Pictures the National Geographic Way" at Breckenridge, CO. We also did some photography workshops with Canyonlands Field Institute, Moab, Utah, where we worked with Tom Till and Bruce Hucko. Also we did Elderhostel programs dealing with photography: Houseboats on Lake Powell and Marble Canyon, both with Gary Ladd. These also gave us access to Antelope Canyon, both upper & lower. We joined (and still participate in) a camera club in Grand Junction in 1986. They did many outings which got us to many beautiful areas. One of the members did workshops around Ouray, CO and he paid us to be helpers such as preparing lunches or breakfasts, and Bill would also drive, gather the film and see that it got processed and back for critiquing. Our participation in the workshops was only a little limited by our responsibilities.We also got free river trips with Hatch River expeditions in return for providing to them their choice of any of the images we had taken (teaching us to take more than one shot of anything really good). A lot was learned from John & Barbara Gerlach. We joined PSA when it first met in Colorado Springs. We also learned lots from seminars. Lots more info available. As you can see my own "expertise" is in conjunction with Bill. DragonTrail Photographic was formed when Hale-Bopp was very prominent. He still gets requests. We are Pentax users and quickly found out we could not share, so naturally he has his & I have mine. I shoot with a Pentax K10 DSLR and mainly a Tokina AT-x, 24-200 lens. Also I use an Olympus Stylus as a point & shoot. Most of my work is done on a 21" iMac. I shoot almost any subject