Sounds like a great challenge Ed! I have a free day tomorrow, so will do something fresher to post! In the meantime...this was taken yesterday with this challenge in mind. I was not sure what you would want, but I was concentrating on the lighting. I was working outside in full sun most of the time, which can be a bit of a problem. But the 1st one was taken with my macro lens in light shade and of course the sun as my source of light and I actually over exposed to give it a soft effect rather than bright colors. The second one was out in full sun and I had to think of what to do to get good exposure for the shrubbery and still get detail on the sidewalk....it took several tries until I got it right! I hope this is what you are looking for! I look forward to what you and the others come up with and I will be back with more tomorrow and will also try some different angles!

2nd pic will not come through...hopefully I will be able to upload later.

My one light source this morning is the strong morning sunlight shining through my living room window. Our black cat Shakey loves to lie in the sun, In this picture he opened one eye to check out what I was doing.
Secondly, we have a geranium plant in the window and its full blossom picked up the morning light beautifully around its edges. I love the shadowy area at the back of the blossom,verifying the one light source coming only from the front. No editing on either of these pictures, both straight from my camera.

Fred Ann, let me begin by saying that it is my belief that the host of a challenge like this has the responsibility of being a teacher and a critic. To fulfill these roles in such a way so as not to be condescending and offensive is a challenge in itself. The whole point of this forum, I believe, is to give and get instruction to and from other members. If you want a popularity contest, go to 500x. I've seen too many instances where people just hand out atta boy's to photos that are truly bad, just because they don't want to take the chance of offending someone. I've been sitting here, drinking too much coffee, deliberating what to say about your shots.
They both have a lot of potential. I don't recall what camera you use or what format you shoot, jpeg or raw, but these two look to me like raw images that have not been worked on. Saying that these are right out of the camera puts me in mind of a baker taking a cake out of the oven and presenting it to a customer without icing or decoration. No digital camera, no matter how expensive, is capable of producing a satisfactory finished product. That is why all of these post production programs exist. We are cheating ourselves if we don't use them.
Rant over. Shakey's picture looks to me to be a little washed out. Try cutting back on the exposure 1/2 to 3/4 of a stop. Add a little contrast and see if you can tone down the really bright areas of the quilt that are competing with your subject. The composition is wonderful. I like the curve of the cat's body leading to the half opened eye and I like the colorful quilt keeping the eye confined to the cat. Like I said, the bright areas in the lower left and lower right corners compete with the subject and distract the eye.
The geranium also has good potential. I like the choice of backlighting the flower. Again, the print is a little overexposed and flat. Try to add some contrast and see if you can brighten the outer petals without losing detail and bring a little more detail out in the center of the bloom.