Critique A Garden Rose

[Dinsdale]

My wife commented on this lovely rose that's opened in our garden and I decided it was time to dust of the macro lens. I hope I did it justice as I took them hand-held in a half squat position.
Feel free to comment/critique.

1)

Garden Rose-2 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

2)

Garden Rose-1 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

3)

Garden Rose-4 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

There are other shots but these are the ones I'm happy with. But, by all means pop along to my Flickr page to view the rest full res.

 

[sirch]

For me the first one is better since it gets the whole flower plus a bit of leaf but I find the background a bit distracting, time for a bit of cloning perhaps?

 

[Dinsdale]

The background is what it is. It's part of my garden so removing it would be wrong. JMHO