Hello Caroline! Is this your first post in the macro forum? If so, then welcome!
This is really nice...good definition on all the little "hairs". I like your choice of aperture - nice OOF background as well.
I do have two suggestions for you. If you took this image in RAW format you might want to try to pull the whites down just a touch - they look very close to being on the edge in a few small places. I'd also enlarge the image to 100% magnification and take a look at a few small spots that appear throughout the image. They could be easily cloned out and it would leave your final image with a nice clean appearance.
Your composition is very nice as well - not too tight but nothing extra getting in the way of the focal point. Can't wait to see more!
Thanks for the critique Julie, and the warm welcome into this forum. Some of the spots in the image are snowflakes, although I see one or two that are a little suspect... I'm posting from a laptop that isn't very good for image editing and appreciate your thoughts on the whites, they do need to be toned down a bit.
Caroline, I like your image very much-if the whites are hot it is only a tad! Colors look really good to me and I like Milkweeds alot, I find them very interesting!
Nice job Caroline. I like the comp here, good balance with both pods tilted the same, and good dynamics with them different sizes and in different steps of opening & seed-shedding. Take out the snowflakes when you can, since there aren't enough to define this as a snowy scene.
Looking forward to more!