Frank, I was trying to respond to you off-list but it kept bouncing back. So I think I might as well just post it as is to the list. So here goes:
To me it looks as if the background even thoroughly blurred is too busy. My eye does not seem to settle anyway within the picture. If I try to look for some time at her face I notice that my eyes are getting tired from the whiteness around it. Also a little too white a patch on her left shoulder merges with background - another point to this argument of mine.
Could it be that in color the contrast would be little weaker and hence the image would be more pleasing to one's eye?
Again, you asked to shoot at will and so I did...
--- Boris Liberman www.geocities.com/dunno57
