Buffalo Bur

Love the contrasts in color and texture that arise from the way the light is coming in low from the left. In the large view especially, the little spikes or thorns or whatever they're called really stand out nicely against the softness of the yellow petals.

By way of a suggestion, and this is just me, of course, I noticed a little leaf peeking into the frame in upper right corner, and it is in the plane of acceptable focus which, for people who notice edges, detracts from the bokeh. And then I saw one also, down in the lower right side along with a splotch of relatively high luminosity.

So that made me wonder what would happen if you were to do a 4 X 5 landscape crop to retain everything else that is in the plane of acceptable focus but minimize those two areas with the addition of maybe some cloning to take that element out of the picture? Just a thought.

I really like it a lot and will be interested to see what the name is; but a rose by any other name is just as pretty

Thanks for the very detailed response to my photo. I'm rather careless as to details and did want to clone out or crop closer to eliminate the URC item.It is just me and I do benefit from NPN critique but am also more than a bit careless.

Charlie: Interesting subject and one I'm unfamiliar with as well. The shot looks a little soft to me but I like the light and comp and how you managed the yellow. Well done.>=))>

Crisp detail, Charlie, and a fine handling of the dof, with the front leaves not fully in focus. I rather like the unorthodox inclusion of the upper R corner leaf fragment - and the yellows are beautifully controlled in the bright light.

Beautiful shot Charlie. I do see the "fragments" now that they've been mentioned but to be honest I didn't notice them before I read the comments.

I never even heard of this one before, Charlie. Another unique offering from you and it has really beautiful blooms. The spines look nasty. A very nice environmental portrait!

Charlie:
The blooms look a little soft to me and the plane of focus seems to be on the leaves rather than the flowers. You handled the yellow well.