This is my first critique, it will be short and sweet. I haven’t done a formal critique of an image since college, so this will be a good exercise for me. I can only imagine that I will get better at these as I do more of them and it will also force me to really “see” an image as I talk about it.
Background of the image. The flower pictured here was a Christmas gift from my mom to my dad. She bought the bulb for him and he planted it — two months later it was a fully blossomed flower. A while back I offered to take some flower pictures for my parents so that they could hang some pictures on the wall in there living room. This flower presented the perfect opportunity for that.
Critique. I find the distorted perspective to be quite interesting. The focus is obviously on the blossom, but the stem draws the viewer’s attention down to the pot. The viewer’s gaze then drifts to the left as it follows the mantle. Because I plan on using this in a series, it would be best to use it to the right of another image so that as the viewer’s gaze moves left there is another image there for the viewer to look at.