Propagating the flowers

[ken1953]

After a long hiatus, I am finally back to photographing with an eye on learning. Here is an attempt at capturing a bee on a flower. I was using AV mode f/5.6 ISO 400 with a focal length of 200 with my Pentax DA 50-200mm ED lens. My camera is a Pentax *ist DL.
I have cropped it by cropping it to a long, narrow view, adjusted the highlights to tone down the blown out top of the flower, adjusted the shadow and contrast adjust the bokeh.
Comments are welcome and please feel free to adjust my pic as you see fit as I learn better by seeing and reading than just by reading alone.

[MB1]

I think your crop is too narrow and tall and the insect is too close to the center of the frame. Since the top of the flower is blown out I'm thinking crop this view from the top to remove about 1/3 of the flower.

That would remove the worst of the blown highlights, put the insect off center and leave a nice out of focus foreground element.

[ken1953]

Thanx mb1 for the suggestion. I knew my narrow crop would get some reserved comments, but I was thinking outside the norm on this as I really did want the flower and to show some distance from the ground. However, I will try your suggestions and see what I think.