The flash kind of kills the shot.

yea i think so too...bt this is my first work so im actually happy with it

i'd love to give you a few pointers on this shot..and some ideas to put in your pocket for the next venture you will come acrossed, as i'm sure you'll do plenty. with the floral thing...the last thing you want is your hand holding them up in front of you...they don't stay still that easily for a good and true "close-up", which tends to put a bit of a blur on the subject. since these have already been cut, you could have easily set up a shot on a better background, using more natural light. Learn to depend alot on natural light because when you are just starting out, a flash can often times be too harsh on a subject leaving the dark shadows cast on the wall and hand in this one. perhaps arrange these flowers in indirect sunlight and then be sure you are steady when you shoot the picture. on a close up, sometimes manual focusing helps more than the auto focus feature. don't know if any of that is helpful to you, but... Just thought i'd pass along a few bits of what little i know.

I don't know why this one ended up so low in the contest- I think it is beautiful and a wonderfully taken shot.

adjusting the contrast and maybe take saturation levels up, would greatly improve your entry. GL!