Monk’s hood is one of the last blooms here in Vermont and one of the few that can be blue. Add a bit of frost and it is a wonderful flower to photograph. I chose a shallow DOF and let the frosty edge be the focus, literally and figuratively with the rest to soften. BTW, the plant is quite poisonous as well!
Any and all
Minolta, 1/60, f/3.5, 40mm ISO200
This is a beautiful picture. I love the composition and the combination of the sharp flower and the soft background with the frost in between. Very engaging picture.
Beautiful, John, and that frost is icing on the cake. I love the colors.
Take these criticisms in the way they’re meant. To help you become a better photographer. But they’re still just my opinions. Others may differ.
I feel the composition is quite awkward being very left heavy. The negative space on the right is not enough to balance it out. Besides not having enough depth of field, the plane of focus is in the wrong place. It should be on the flower centers, at least the one in front. I also find the large, bright. out of focus petal in the FG a little distracting. Also, the left side seems a little cut off. Now that I’ve torn your image apart, feel free to go after some of mine. I need help too. 
Thank you all, including Michael. I’ve long realized the first person I need to please with my photos is myself—and sometimes no one else! But I also love sharing my work, as I know you do, and so I listen to comments and they very much help me to make images that are, in the end, more pleasing to me as well, I hope, to others.
A very attractive subject for this week’s theme John. The exposure is quite flattering and shows off the frosted plant nicely. After considering Michael’s comments, I do wish the composition was more to the left, filling the whole frame, with perhaps some OOF background along the perimeter. I will make a note to avoid eating if ever found 
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