Good morning MFC and Joescmoe! Thanks for the nice comments. I took the shot in color mode however I just didn't like it as well. The sprout has a decidedly yellowish cast due to its recent emergence. That combined with the brown soil just made it look sickly. I thought the B&W might serve better by showing the purity of the newborn and not distracting the viewer with the colors. Thanks for your thoughts! Cindy
Great idea for the theme, Cindy...nice capture of the "birthing" process. Good sense of "newborn skin" texture. I like how your choice of B&W is meant to relate better to the emotive aspect of this...I'm curious about a color version, but I like this too. MFC
Good focus, nice textures, and evocative title. But (*) I think color might work better for this, especially if the sprout has a hint of green or yellow ("Nature's first green is gold . . ." as Robert Frost wrote). JoeSchmoe