Derek Brown became hooked on photography after getting a Nikon D80 DSLR a bit more than a year ago. Reaction to his work from friends and family has been positive, but Derek's not so sure. He looks at the same pictures and sees problems. "I feel sometimes my photos are dull and they don't 'pop' like they should," he wrote us. "Sometimes they turn out to be too gray and they appear cartoonish."

Derek wondered if a pro would agree, so we asked one: Globe Assistant Chief Photographer Ted Gartland.

I don't think I've ever seen such a stunning variety of photos of flowers ... and I now know more about stamens and pistils than I ever thought I'd want to know.

Because of her schedule, it looks like Pat Greenhouse may not be able to narrow the May contest entries to the Final Fifty until next week. So to keep you busy until then, how about another Photo Challenge: Portraits. We've taken photos of the moon, rain, flowers ... let's try some fellow human beings for awhile. Here are a few simple guidelines:

We've chosen a judge for the May Flowers contest, and we've posted all the eligible photos in one of the six galleries you can find linked on the first frame of our "slider" above. If you don't see your photo in any of the galleries, and you think it's eligible, please send an e-mail right away to raw@boston.com and we'll check it out for you.

The theme for our June contest is Spring Sports, so let's see those action shots. I had amateur sports in mind when I came up with this theme, but we'll certainly take any photos you've shot at pro games as well.