Zoo Weed
Midday sun is an interesting choice of light, but tricky. This type of light generally works with things that you want to bring out the texture. In this case you appear to be trying to capture the light passing through the gauze texture of the plant. I like the way you have placed the dark plant in front of the lighted surface. This makes your subject just that much more actuated.
There is an axiom I preach: “Decide what turns you on and then take everything else out.” In this case I believe you are showing a little more that necessary. Scattered through the image are extraneous twigs and branches that add unnecessary geometric lines which distract form your subject, the light and texture of the plant. In the field the photographer either needs to remove these distracting parts of the scene or crop tighter in camera. The other alternative is to use the tools in you photo software.
Also the highlights are starting to burn out and could be taken down a bit without hearting the shadow areas.
Click on Image
The photographer modified this picture to his liking after reviewing the critique. What do you think? Is this an improvement over the original image? I think so.
Modified by Photographer 
November 27th, 2007 at 11:17 am
I didn’t trust my own instinct and brought up the background lighting to expose more, in the process burnt the highlights a little in the brightest spots.
I work in real estate where removing anything from an image is a huge NO NO! I’m going to have to find my other hat for these images where it is acceptable to remove things from an image.