Wild waves on ragged rocks
by Thai

Comment by yakatme:
Great location for a picture! Agreeing with the others, I would have moved to the right a little to get more of the water and the ends of the lines of rocks. Focusing on the distant water and the rocks and leaving the frame of the hole in the cliff out of focus and without the flowers (too much in the picture) would have made this better.

To add another suggestion, try playing around with your aperture to see what the results are. I shoot 80% of my images in aperture priority mode so that I can control my depth of field. It might have been possible to get the foreground AND the background in focus by changing the aperture to something like f/13 or even f/22. This would have the effect of slowing your shutter speed however, which would require the use of a tripod to keep the image sharp.

"I may be old and small but I am full of spirit"
by Thai

Comment by yakatme:
Wow, definitely a nice shot and huge improvement over the first one. I would like to have seen Southern Gentleman's post-processed version to see how that improved it further. I think that it could benefit greatley from either a curves or a levels adjustment. Levels is easier to learn and helps a lot.

BTW, I just looked through the tutorials and was very surprised to find that there is not yet a tutorial on levels.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by redmoon:
you're reflection in the water adds some humour to this, actually. i like the way it looks you take pictures; it seems you arms are stretched out and you're zapping the flower. the water does have the negative impact of uglifying the rose a little bit though, i'm afraid. it also feels unbalanced composition-wise; i wonder how it might look with a bot cropped off the bottom? giving this a 5.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by GoodEnd:
This refections don´t help you so much. I can´t find any soft focus here, too.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by pminne:
Nice shot, but I can see your reflection and the camera's

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by IreneM:
This meets the challenge wonderfully well. Beautiful colour and composition.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by tumitumi:
Soap bubble rose? Strange.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by NoellaSue:
I don't care for all the reflections. Not in a close-up anyway. I think they're cool when they're in a drop, but not inside the flower.

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by hotpasta:
your reflection absolutely kills this shot...sorry :-(

"From the Heart"
by Thai

Comment by Shy Clicker:
Lovely concept; perhaps the reflections just a bit overdone so they take away the beauty of the rose