I like the concept your going after - the three phases of the life cycle - birth, life and death. I would like to have seen more on the right side without cropping off part of the white fluff or whatever they're called. Also, the final image seems a little too crunchy. I took the liberty to reprocess the image to reflect these comments.   Posted: 03/03/2023 15:52:47

Marti, I agree with David and find his rendition more successful for what you are capturing. Nice colors and background. There are a lot of shots looking down on flowers, ao here it is successful and at the same time maybe you can try some at a lower level and watch your backgrounds when doing so.   Posted: 03/10/2023 08:46:38

Hi Marti. This is a great concept and amazing to find all three of the life cycles in one plant. I think that the wider crop suggested by David is a good idea, to include all of the the white tendrils. I'm not sure about the "crunchy" comment, but David's edit does make the purple flower on the left look more in focus, and that's an improvement. I like the contrast of the colors of the flower against the green background and you have done a good job with the aperature setting to have the flower standout against a less sharp background.   Posted: 03/21/2023 15:40:19

Marti, You have it all in one image the life cycle. Good job. I really like the contrast of the colors. I have a visual feedback. I did crop the image and rotate it and darkened the background in camera raw.   Posted: 03/30/2023 18:23:21