Hello, World

Flowers. So cliché. And yet, with the right set of skills, what was once a pretty subject becomes a dazzling display of mood-manipulating flora!

I'll start with the composition. I love the choice of placement, with the stem sneakily coming out of the bottom corner, and the actual foreground off-center to allow for some negative space over on the left.
I also think you've done a tremendous job with depth of field. There is very clearly a foreground (the bright yellow flowers just right of center), a middleground (the two buds and the other yellow flower group), and a background (the rest of the plant, along with the purple plants beyond). What's better, the middleground is broken up into two parts (buds on one depth layer, flower clump on the other), and the background also has varying levels of depth. This entire breakup allows the viewer to experience the full setup of the photo in steps, rather than all at once.

Secondly, the color choice. The original photo would have been fine for a summer-oriented composition, but this manipulation of colors allows for exactly what you wanted--a wintery feel. The icy blue sheen added to the leaves, the purple hue of the background flowers, and the focused flowers being more yellow than orange all group together to form a very cool and fresh perspective. I can almost feel the breeze on my skin!

What I might suggest is to have a more distinguished subject. Although the focus was evidently meant to be on the entire group of yellow flowers, I do think focusing mostly on one or two might add to the DOF. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/w/w…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Wink)" />

Overall, great job on this one. Can't wait to see more! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/e/e…" width="18" height="15" alt="" title=" by darkmoon3636" />