2 groups of six and a rule of thirds = a pretty good macro/closeup

[JBW]

Light, Composition, and Emotion. Those three are my personal criteria when judging an image.

For this particular image:
1. Light - could have been better. If it were my image, I would find a way to emphasize the subject. Like more light from the light source, maybe brighten the subject more, or create a subtle influence on viewer's tunnel vision through subtle vignette.

2. Composition - Shallow DOF is good to remove distractions, but creates more negative space. In this particular image, if it were me, I would crop more the negative space since it's not value adding (in this case) to the whole image. I like how Manfred cropped it. I would probably do the same thing.

3. Emotion - For me, this image's message is the beauty of nature. That could/should have been the goal of the image, to capture the viewers in awe of nature's wonders. The original is good, but it could have been better. The focal point, for me, to evoke the viewers' emotion is through the vivid part of the flower, which is the stamen. It should have been emphasized more, if not through colors, maybe through magnification. So #2 criteria already solved #3 in this case.

That is how I would probably have done it. Regardless, it's already a good image.

Good points.