Month #51 - Retrospective of Daily Photos posted from 5/04 to 12/09 (most viewers for the month)

When I went back into my daily posting gallery to find the 7/08 winner, this one frankly surprised me. It was an overwhelming favorite (almost 2 to 1 over #2) and I wouldn't have guessed nor chosen it myself - even though it is a nice enough image. Just goes to show.... Here's what I wrote when posting this in 7/08.
7/3/08 - Dahlia Bud
Got a ton of keepers this morning & asked my wife to choose the PAD. I liked her choice.
I was going to make a macro of this bud, but peeked through the viewfinder before moving the tripod closer to macro distance (macro lens is a 105 prime & requires zooming with your feet and physically moving the camera). When I saw today's PAD image, I forgot all about the macro. The soft greenish background is courtesy of a Comcast cable box. A wide open lens for selective focus gave the overall background a dreamscape appearance.
Had I done a classic macro there would have been no doubt what the subject was since the bud would fill the frame. However, here there still is no doubt because of *dominance* as established by the bud's color, shape and contrast. It fills less than 10% of the picture space but is still dominant because of its visual characteristics (from the gospel according to Freeman Patterson - and others).