I like the juxtaposition of the fancy shoes out away from civilization

I like that the 2 textures combine sort of. Maybe a person would have wanted to cross the river without getting her shoes ruined?

I find the photo very original, and where will the owner who was raised in a hurry shoes? a thriller?

I think the author is trying, precisely, to create a statement of "conflict of dis-similarities", in putting a pair of fashionable shoes in an unlikely setting, hence heightening it's visual and emotional impact, like shooting a well-manicured pair of hands doing iron-mongery or something rough and dirty like that.

I absolutely love the way you put the shoes together. I like the way you tried to be creative also. For me though, shoes like this say "fashion" and the surroundings don't really show "fashion". If you had a sign out there with a big X on it or something, the photo might make a statement. The lighting, rule of thirds, color, focus and crispness is great!

Beautiful water fall.

Fantastic shot, great angle

bravo

Nice take on the theme

nice shot, good colors but a lil soft on the focus on the water

Nice Congrats

great shot, good composition

beautifully done

beautiful, your persistence paid off.

You caught it at just the perfect moment. Well done!

Great shot Author

I think you have got it this time, lovely DOF

"There should be at least 3 different colors,"
It's a beautiful image, but I can not see 3 colours, black is not considered a colour.

colour seems overdone, IMO

Naaaw - cute

How horrible for her. At least she and the animals got out

will go up, but very convenient

How dreadful for her, what caused the fire?

Hey, tell the truth, author. The flie was stoned, heh heh!

Love it, great job Author!

so cute!

great shot

incredible. How did ya manage to do such a closeup shot without the fly flying away??

Amazing indeed! Well captured, author

great catch

Fantastic

Well done

Love and hip waders!

Cute kids

very funny

Thanks, she is a good sport.

Not the prettiest thing, but I think you need to tell us what you hate about it.

Great finally a photograph of the kind of thing I;m sure the suggester had in mind.

Excellent !

A shame you couldn't loose the wires.

Looks nice. Reminds me of where we used to live in Wyoming with the old windmill and all

Nice looking pooch. Looks good in high res

sweet, wonderful DOF and detail

I like the desaturation in this photo, gives it the look of an old watercolour.

lovely DOF...

definitely better

You are on the right track here with this shot. Hi Key lighting is best described as lighting that eliminates most or all of the "modeling" or 3D shadowing of traditional 2 or 3 light setups. Most of the shadows here are gone, but I think the the problem with the BG is as friiskiwi said, due to not enough light on it. If you're using PS or PSE, try a levels adjustment. Take the middle slider to about 1.10 or 1.15 and the right (whites) slider to about 245 or 250...that should correct some of the grey issues with the BG

Good Luck and well done for a first attempt author.

EDIT: I forgot to add, that until you get the hang of it, it often helps to over-expose your initial by a stop or so...

Great focus on the camera, with the foreground and background blurred.

nice framming

It would have been better if you had managed to keep the background completely white. When you asked the questions, I tried goggle to see if I could find any really good descriptions of High Key, and the more I read the more confused I got.
To my mind a High Key image is very light, shadowless, but still with some (very few) real blacks.
However you will find many different ideas of what High Key is.
Try a bit more contrast in you image and straighten the candle.
Good Luck