Thanks, Ray. One of the best and well observed comments I have received so far.
Interestingly, this photo was not cropped (something the other comments didn?t seem to recognize). One really shouldn?t let negative comments discourage one (I was pretty confused by what the other comments were trying to say ? it didn?t make much sense, as you pointed out). I think the other comments showed that they thought the loss of sharpness was due to a 100% crop, where the smallest lens/aperture related softening would be magnified. A positive comment like yours is always helpful and encouragement.
Interestingly, I have found that shallow DOF photos have generated the most controversial comments when photographing flowers. Perhaps people want a floral photo to look as real and sharp as possible throughout. It?s very easy to achieve that ? just get a cheap digi-cam with the smallest possible lens and aperture and photograph it with the smallest aperture possible (loosing any artistic touch and any perspective of depth). Or use an SLR at F/32 (loosing a small amount of sharpness from diffraction), or use an SLR from much further away, and then crop the image ? loosing resolution (both ways you loose image quality and any artistic touch).
Shallow DOF photos also often get the most negative comments from the less artistically inclined. Common subjects (flowers, common insects and reptiles etc.) usually make the best subjects for this because they are things that least need to be scientifically precise and well documented. Everyone knows what they look like, so it is a nice opportunity to get artistic about them...
I also like using shallow DOF for certain photos because what is in focus is really sharp (an optimum aperture can be used), and a lot of artistic blur can be achieved. Surrounding objects can be made less distracting as well by doing this. If everything is in focus, it can often also make the photo a lot flatter, and typically what is in focus is less well focused.
I am still learning a lot, so your helpful comment in setting the others straight is well valued.
g'day Bryan, unfortunately Markus and Guido are both wrong and giving bad advise, sorry guys
the "blurrynes" is due to shallow depth of field due to the optical phenomenon that depth of field reduces as the focus distance reduces, that is, shallow DOF is a characteristic of close up imaging
the composition is excellent, a "larger crop", would not help, but a smaller aperture would
as for using flash at a fast shutter speed and cropping the black part, that is just silly, non-sensical and displays a total ignorance of the effect, use and control of flash/shutter/aperture/DOF, this technique would do nothing to improve the shallow DOF, nor would it having any effect on freezing movement, which is not actually an issue in this case
nice shot ,Brian dont think its in focus beter to take more distance and crop a little afterwords,because suppose this is a very small flower.Or on M mode you can flash at shutterspeed 1/400 only the bottom part of the frame is black. You shud try Flash shutterspeeds test and see what it gives. It works on my 300D with external flash.1/400
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nice shot ,Brian 
{K:14261} 7/9/2005
