There's something great going on here, and for me at least, a B&W conversion would sell it better.
Now why didn't that occur to me? I'm off to convert it, see what I can massage out of it. Thanks for the idea!
EDIT: Okay... Here's a modified version. In the previous "entry" I cropped the shot pretty hard and the tea cup got over-emphasized. While it's obviously the subject of the shot, I made it a bit overbearing and in so doing threw the frame out of balances. It never ceases to amaze me how obvious the solution appears once someone else points you in the right direction. Thank you
Helene, your input is always so totally "spot on".
Converting the shot to black and white transformed it. Like whoa. The shot takes on a totally different, I think "edgier" mood and I really like it. Thanks to
Browncoat for that suggestion.
More specifically, in this version (after the obvious conversion) I reduced the crop considerably, both vertically and horizontally, which *seems* to have lessened the emphasis on the tea-cup... Yes? I think the extra surrounding space gives the shot some breathing room. The sky was ever so slightly darkened with the red eye-dropper to add a little moodiness and an unsharp mask was applied to wrap things up.
Thanks for the feedback... It's been awesome.