What makes a good photograph?

I took this picture in the Bishop's Palace gardens in Chichester a while ago.
The bird is nicely central (tick) but the messy bits of sandwich used to attract it ruin the picture.

In selecting from the photos I've taken over the years I think I'm learning a bit about what makes a good photograph. That is a photograph that pleases other people as well as yourself. (Excuse me talking about something I've had no lessons in.) The right light is crucial. All those interior shots that make rooms look bigger and brighter than they really are. There's a certain time of day, as it's getting light but not completely light that seems a good time for me to take a photo.

The photos on my blog vary in quality enormously but I am guessing that in selecting photos to share it will be the well lit close ups of flowers, indoors and out,the arrangements of pretty bric-a-brac and colourful handmade pieces that will be the most popular. And on this particular blog the statistics tell me it's the photos of clothes that people like the best.