Thorns of the Barrel Cactus
by AzCKelly

Comment by abranton:
Perfect detail, great shot!

Thorns of the Barrel Cactus
by AzCKelly

Comment by BrianR:
Good lighting lacks wow..

Yellow chicks!
by AzCKelly

Comment by kandykarml:
Great capture.. I don't like the out of focus branch/stick that's in the foreground though..It's the first thing that caught my eye.. 6

Thorns of the Barrel Cactus
by AzCKelly

Comment by Dirt_Diver:
Not sure what that is but you have a tad bit of something trying to come back out from the background. Needs to be burned so you can't see it.

Prickly Pear Bloom
by AzCKelly

Comment by sfalice:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Cactus blossoms are always so beautiful to find and to photograph. The obstacle course getting to them is sometimes half the fun.

I like, very much, the selective desaturation on the base of the flower. It gives the impression of an inward glow that is quite pleasing.

But my overall impression of this very nice image is that it is fuzzy. It's usually helpful if somewhere in the composition there is something that is tack-sharp to give the viewer something to stop at, and get bearings.

I like the idea very much and a little sharpness would make this image really zing.

Thorns of the Barrel Cactus
by AzCKelly

Comment by Judi:
Good abstract work.

Prickly Pear Bloom
by AzCKelly

Comment by saracat:
Pretty flower. The crop feels a little odd to me, but I can't quite put my finger on why...

Prickly Pear Bloom
by AzCKelly

Comment by klynn:
Of the many, many, many flowers in this challange this is one of the more interesting ones, so good job for that. However it looks like you might have used the erase tool to do your colorations, which is fine but the upper edges of the flower aren't as precise as they could be. I can see some of the green of the cactus. Also, I personally don't understand the dots of color on the "stem". Could be quite nice with some re-editing.

Prickly Pear Bloom
by AzCKelly

Comment by pamelasue:
not very sharp

Prickly Pear Bloom
by AzCKelly

Comment by bubeltrubel:
a little bit out of focus, IMO