Hello everyone,
This was done completely in blender (cycles), 2000 samples, 8 hour render time (CPU)
It was based off a photograph I took a few years ago.
I appreciate any comments or critiques.
Thanks, tmanrules97
Bump me up! 
I find nothing more frustrating than not getting a single comment. Still, I did like a few other people, I thought of a lot of things to say and walked away… So, here I come again.
First thing to say: I like what you did. I wouldn’t change much anything.
Next, the details. A few things bug me.
The first one is that you must decide if the flowers of your species of lily raise above water to bloom or not. I’m no expert in water lilies so, if the position of the flowers is conform to your reference image, please, ignore me.
Next, the leaves in the background are in a very weird position. They should be lying flat on the water and then you can use some negative light to make the background fade faster to black.
Then the petals. They are too geometric, too uniform. You should add one level of subsurf… and increase the crease along the edge to fix the problem of the texture bleeding from the outside to the inside because of the subsurf. You should also do something for the textures which are obviously repetitive add one on the white petals.
Last, the water is way too flat. A very slight bump map to disturb these perfect reflections wouldn’t be too much.
Keep on the good work!
Thanks for the advice Kaluura!
I agree with what you said about the textures being repetitive and the water being too perfectly smooth.
There will be a new render up tomorrow or the day after.
a beautiful, serene scene. very nice, maybe could be a little brighter to support the serenity feeling it already has, and the petals slightly translucent at the edges at least. very good work.
Thank you for your kind words and your suggestion doris. I am always amazed at your work.
I did some more work on this scene and here is the latest render:
I changed:
-The water now has a bump map to get rid of the perfect reflections
-New textures were given to some lily pads
-The petals bump map were increased
-New lighting for a brighter scene
-The water droplets on the closest pads now look like water droplets
very nice changes. i like the lighter scene. and the water reflection is a huge improvement. the mood has changed a little because of changing the composition too. its nice too.