Lotus flower

[splashy]

Please comment

[chauncey]

The white "halo" in the first one excessively draws the eye...
the second one could use more depth of field or a focus stacking technique.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Splashy,

I prefer the second, without the white halo.

I wonder if there was any more texture to be had in the stamen and petals?
The histogram doesn't look clipped, but I wonder if any over exposure occurred during capture, or perhaps just a (lack of) Depth of Field - the EXIF says f/5 at 135mm, 1/500s at iso100 was used.

Or possibly because I don't think you cropped this at all in PP, nor did you downsize (and sharpen) before uploading to TinyPic, so I really don't think we're seeing the full potential of the shot. (but correct me if I'm wrong)

When there's an odd insect on a bloom, I am often tempted to remove it, as it only distracts attention away from the subject - problem is seeing 'em before pressing the button!

I might try losing some of the 'dead space' either side if I were cropping.

Hope that helps,

[splashy]

Thank you for the comments.
I knew you would say this about the fly. ;-)

I will go back one of these day and made a similar picture with a much higher F, I always seem to forget about the DOF when I use the 70 - 300 on a short distance and small F.

The picture was a little PP'ed on color in LR, the background Causian blur in PS.