First off the color and exposure are wonderful. Now as to meeting the challenge you know that you took on a huge challenge to anthropomorphize an inanimate object right? It is difficult to capture the emotion of sadness in a living being be it animal or human but it is extremely difficult to attribute the emotion of sadness to an apple. Try as I might I just don't see any emotion - I see a nice still life, but no sadness. Maybe if there was a single waterdrop on the stem that was like a single tear ready to fall and an apple core off in the backdrop (out of focus ala bokeh because it is a supporting cast not the main object that is to dominate the eye's attention) I would be able to see the sadness in the idea. As it stands now I only see a nice shot of a still life. (not voting)