Tom McCreary, APSA, MPSA
March 2025 - Past Prime Rose
About the Image(s)
This was taken last spring at Rosedown Plantation in Louisiana. Besides a beautiful plantation home, there are several other buildings and a large garden with heritage plants including rose bushes. The roses were most past their prime, but I liked this image with some petals left on the rose flower with many petals on the ground and on the rose leaves. I thought about reversing the image so that the rose stem would come in from the left, but decided to leave it as is, because the green rose leaves make a good stopping point to keep the eye in the image. It was taken with an Olympus camera, and Olympus 12-45mm lens at 45mm, 1/250th second, f8, and ISO 200. I did not do much editing of the image.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Kia ora Tom. What a lovely image of an aging rose. I love the twists and turns and detail in the petals still on the rose. You have good separation of background and rose, and I'm wondering whether slightly darkening the background, especially around the edges, might also enhance this. Posted: 03/11/2025 15:36:53
Nice colors, saturation and focus. For me the image is a bit too busy and I find I am not able to focus on the main subject. I like the petals on the leaves very much. I'd love to see that rose and leaves separated from the background of other petals. Posted: 03/14/2025 17:01:28
Nice story of the end of the growing cycle. I like that you have captured the flower on its way out without too much brown and death. As Mary and Cindy mention, I agree that the background, with all of its white is distracting. The human eye is attracted to lighter shades, especially white. Some darkening, and maybe a light blur to the background could make you main flower stand out. And maybe with a HSL filter, you could brighten the reds/pinks of the main flower to make it more prominent. Posted: 03/19/2025 20:00:59
I love the subject, but I kind of agree with Cindy. It is very busy in the background. You could try to blur those fallen petals in the background, so there is a sense of them but the main flower will stand out better. That flower blends with the background and it really is beautiful and should be the focus of the image. Posted: 03/25/2025 23:43:31
Thanks to all of your comments. I agree that the petals on the ground should be darkened. But I would not want to blur them, as I liked the idea of the petals on the ground. Posted: 03/28/2025 20:40:16
I can't figure why the background works so well when blending into the subject and foreground. Maybe the colors of the rose are supported by background fallen petals. At any rate this is a different type of close-up. It's perfect the way it is. Posted: 03/30/2025 02:57:43