Composition of Flower

[OneArmedScissor125]

Does the composition of this photo good? Would cropping make the flower stand out more or does the fading border do this well? The camera that I use has been having focus problems recently. Does this photo seem to have major focus issues? Thanks for any and all answers.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Editing: Brightened with levels, added a white fading border

[clockdoc]

Parts of the flower seem acceptably sharp but at f/3.5 depth of field will not be your best friend. There are so many shots of flowers that it is hard to stand above the rest. The centered composition coupled with the corners fading off to white may have been what you were looking for but IMHO they add no value to the shot. When you say you are having focus problems, what in particular seems to be the problem?

[OneArmedScissor125]

No lens will auto focus on the camera body, I tried three or four different lenses. The camera also started showing an error 99 message whenever I tried to take a shot. The camera club advisors at my school are trying to fix it,since it is a camera club camera, though it may have to be fixed by professionals if it can't be fixed easily.

[Robin Sarac]

Uh...pretty much ditto to what clockdoc said. I do like a shallow depth of field but it looks like you might have focused on the back petals instead of the center...which may be what you were going for!

This is all very subjective, but this comes off as "just another flower shot" as it stands. I don't really like the fading border.