First of all, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to reply to my request for critique, it's appreciated. I'll also add that this was a 5 image HDR made from SNS-HDR, which I've had some tremendous luck with in terms of making 'realistic' looking HDR images.
@fred I think the floor looks oversharpened on an LCD vs my CRT - at least it looks like it to me as I view the images on my MacPro laptop vs my Lacie. In the print (16x24) it definitely looks ok, but I think the contrast of the white particles on the dark floor emphasizes them immensely. Thanks for the compliment on the composition and I think you're right about toning down the outside, which I did for my print.
@degrub I find myself struggling many times with that question of 'what am I trying to say with this picture' because a lot of the times, especially with images like these, all I am doing is showing my attraction to the geometry of the lines and the textures throughout. I look upon this image as being very abstract rather than having a substantial statement about it.
@pegelli see above with my comment to fred, but I do agree with you.
@kikashi It does look fine in b/w also, but one of the attractions to me was the painted 'thing' in blue being in such sharp contrast to the dull browns/yellows and reds. I'll probably print a b/w version too, but my heart will stay with the color one
@francios see above
@christoph Thanks for the suggestions, not sure if I'll try the vingette though as I've never been satisfied with my post vingette attempts in photoshop and/or lightroom
@John I would have liked it wider too... but... I hate my 17-40L zoom's lack of sharpness and I hate my 24-70L's lack of sharpness too (I need to send both to CPS). I do LOVE my cheap ass Canon 28 F2.8 though (which this was shot with) because there is this quality to it that seems significantly better than any other wide angle I've used on my Canon. I'm not so sure if I agree with the 'never lead the viewer's eye' comment in regards to this image other than the fact that it might have been ok with a closer point, cropping out some of the extraneous info, but then the foreground dimensionality would have been lost to a degree.
Thanks again all, it's an interesting exercise in hearing and then responding to your ideas - one that I hope to participate in more fully in the future.
Cheers to all,
*steve