This is a fun image, and gave me quite a surpise when I first saw it. I immediately wondered if this was a macro - or if the bug was that large - then of course my eye caught the clues that told me not to be too alarmed.
This is an interesting take on the challenge, with the circles on the bug, working with the diamonds, lots of shapes working together here.
So let's get to my thoughts on the specifics -
Composition -
I think that this is a classic case where using the rule of thirds would strengthen your photo. Divide your viewfinder, or photo in photoshop, into thirds vertically, and align the center of your main subject, or the bug in this case, to be centered on this line. There's a lot of math that shows why humans love this alignment, but really just dividing your photo composition into thirds adds amazing strength to lots of subjects.
Another idea is to use the pattern of the diamonds as more of a graphic element. I'm thinking of aligning the left "tip" of the diamonds along the left edge of the photo, and the right tips of the diamonds on the right lining up right along the right edge - thus giving us a feeling of the pattern in a more graphic layout.
Lighting:
I would say that your lighting is working against you most in this photo. The human eye is drawn to contrast first when presented with a new image, in generally this order - lightest, brightest, contrast. Now we can't always say that is the order, but those are huge concepts to keep in mind. In the case of this photo, the background is so bright, and so defined, that my eye is immediately drawn to it, wanting to figure it out, then I realize there's more to look at up close.
Here are the two workarounds that leap to my mind on how you could work with this:
1- Shoot at a different time of day. Is there a time of day that the grid is in light and the background isn't? Maybe that would work better.
2- Shoot with your aperture open more, or your speed faster, to let the depth of field work for you. I'm almost sure the brightness of the background wouldn't matter if there were very little detail there for my eye to be drawn to. I'm not sure what your camera is capable of, but even dropping your f-stop to 5.6, a pretty standard setting among cameras, would bring more focus on your subject by blurring that background more.
Big Wrap Up:
Just a couple more quick observations-
First, the DPC voting crowd LOVES bright colors - so if you have post processing software where you could "juice" the orange color of the bug, it would do better in the voting.
Second, wet is good. I'm amazed at this little factoid that a grizzled old video pro taught me. He would spray down EVERYTHING before a shoot, sidewalks, wood decks, streets if he could. Watch on photos and video you see how many things look "wet". I'm thinking spraying down the wood here would give lots of definition to the grain, and make this a stronger photo too.
Third, Photographer's Comments are good - I'd like to know more about what you were thinking when you shot this, what you where going for - it helps those of us in the Critique Club to taylor our feedback.
This was great creative. You have a good eye for meeting the challenge on a creative level, with just a couple of adjustments, lighting and depth of field being key, you'll be able to bring more strength to your creativity. I'm looking forward to seeing more entries from you.
Hope that helps. Any questions on what I've said here, feel free to contact me through the DPC PM system.
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