Purple

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 30D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1/80 sec f/6.3 ISO 125

Minor crop and cloned off small bud, S/H, Sharpening in CS5

[Aidan Briggs]

What a great flower. Nice exposure and I like the symmetry. The dark patches in the background are a bit distracting. Maybe a bit of work with the clone stamp at 50% opacity would help with some of the dark blotches. Looking forward to more!!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ian. Nice sharpness and DOF on the flower and I like the comp. I would agree with Aidan about trying to soften the dark portions of the background. To my eye, the colors of the flower look muted and flat, and the whites are rather gray. I think some experimenting with contrast and saturation would really make the flower pop. :)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ian, good comments above. Its important to remember when shooting subjects like this to watch your backrounds and avoid distracting elements. Agree about trying more contrast and sat to see if the flower would "pop" more.
The flower being centered doesn't really bother me here but the fact that it appears floating does...

[Ken Childs]

Ian, this is a cool looking subject! Any way to find out what it is?

Steve already nailed the critique, or at least his is the same as mine would have been. :)

[Dave Mills]

The flower looks like a Columbine...

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, folks. I'll go back and work on that BG a bit and also see if I can brighten up the flower.

Yes, I believe it is a columbine.