-I think your A520 has some manual controls, including aperture priority. For a shot like this in low light use a low ISO on a tripod, to allow for a slow shutter speed without camera shake.
-Some basic image adjustments will help as well. I would suggest the most basic as being levels, curves, saturation and sharpening. Levels is the first and most important, IMO.
-On the compression thing. Most photo editors will have the compression settings in the file save dialog somewhere. If you need a good and free photo editor, with many of the features of the big names, I like to recommend paint.net
-The shot itself just does not have much to it. I would describe it as deadpan. Maybe a tilt, or something colorful reflected in the mirror?
Oh, and congrats on your first ribbon, even if it's the brown. I've got one as well.
Lighting would be better with a fill light so that the shadow wasn't behind the mirror. Cool mirror. So much space above it and yet the bottom is cut off, I would prefer it if the bottom wasn't cut off. You did a nice job of keeping the reflective surface black.
I'm afraid this one is going to be a brown contender. The lighting is pretty poor, there appears to be some blur from camera shake, and I think you used excessive compression on this.
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