First Shot/Please Critique

[zachsilvey]

This is my first real effort into photography. This image is strait from the camera (albeit its a 3.1 mp olympus d-560) with a little cropping. I would be very grateful if you criticized/critiqued it.

 

[tirediron]

Nice work. A couple of thoughts. First off is that it's a little over-exposed. Probably about 1/2 stop or so, but that can probably be corrected in post without too much difficulty. The other is the composition. Close-up work generally doesn't follow the rule of thirds; the idea is [usually] to fill the frame with the subject. This can be achieved by cropping.

 

[zachsilvey]

Thanks. I am super new to this mostly learning by listening to podcasts.

 

[Marco]

As well as the slight overexposure I think the background is too busy, or bluntly boring. I would try to bring more attention to the flower(thistle?) , firstly by being in a bit closer or by using a larger aperture to blur the background a bit more(if you can)

Try maybe something like this