"La Vie On The Rose" - Photography In Red, White & Winged P(r)ose
This is one of the photography projects I've had in the pipeline for a while. I had gone as far as shortlisting the shots a couple of times, but wasn't really able to feel any further than that. The two rose bushes, Red and White, kept calling me back with the camera but the output never quite made for a presentable collection. Little creatures crawled or flew in and out of my rose-focussed attention and Shanti woofed her delight at the moon! At last I got the go-ahead from Fly and robo-barge got to work.
Clichéd as human behaviour may have made them out to be, I've never had anything against roses. I love how they look, the varieties on offer, their aromas. The wild pink roses are something else altogether, rooting in the funkiest of places, thorns sharp and petals soft. These two front-garden bushes I'm talking about are semi-tamed. They were pruned last year after a very long period of languid growth, which most likely accounts for their proliferation this summer. At one time I counted 37 buds and flowers on the White Rose bush - compared to half a dozen or so last year!
I've now got lots of photographs which collectively capture a few fleeting moments of Red'n'White life. The time has come to make a fresh shortlist and to flow with the process of selection, view, crop, upload, and some words if they suggest themselves. I'm going to divide the photos into three sections:
1. Red Life - 2. White Life - 3. Life in R&W.
Photos taken with a Nikon D200 + Nikon AF-S 40mm f2.8 MG lens.
All images are sized to a width of 1680 pixels, so if you'd like to zoom in, you can use the right-click (CTR-click) options to 'view image'.
Thanks for stopping by
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Thorns, buds, flowers, little creatures to be seen
If you're not sure, dunno what I mean
Just scroll some of the way down
This very same screen!
Red Life
A budding red rose bravely looks over the thorn
Through misty wet leaves and into each morn
Dense with nectar - bent, yet not forlorn
Trailing delicate, fragrant incense.
White Life
There's also pink - a pretty wee hue
And don't forget the sky is blue!
Right, enough simple rhyme
Barge, that will do!
Life in Red & White
Remote-controlled robo-barge obediently circulating
Little life on wings zoomed-in, gaze met
Utterly fa-sci-na-ting!
Bees
Echinacea
Flash the cat
New York City
Workers in Dubai
Bitch on the Beach
Tahiti & French Polynesia
Fly Life – macros and verse
UK to India overland by car (1973)
Eastern Europe - Poland, Russia, the Baltics (1994)
The Nile and the Pharaohs - Egypt (1996)
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon (1996)
I really love the red life, the white life is amazing ... but red roses are my favorites. And now I'm really ashamed to say, I love Shanti the most ... but maybe that's not so weird as I own three Shepherds together with my boyfriend. We lost the fourth, a German Shepherd, last 28th of June.
Love your comment @hetty-rowan - Shanti was very pleased with what you said about her. 3 Shepherds wow! Sorry to hear about the fourth last summer. I think that people who don't have experience of animal friendships (I used to be one such) cannot understand the magnitude of the loss! I saw that you posted about German Shepherds - I understand how people are scared of dogs (I used to be :), but it's also crazy to think that people are scared of dogs like Shanti (and your three by the sounds of it), when I know how gentle and playful (and alert and intuitive) she is!
Thanks for visiting 🔆
Of course I will say "HI" to my three Shepherds, but you can say "HI" to them too, they have their own steemit account where they tell their story's. @shepherd-stories. There you can meet them and they would love to get to know you!
The poetry is especially poignant!
I like the photo journey of this flower, and each year, each bud, can teach us about life, that beauty is fleeting, and to be cherished while it lasts, that death is part of life, that death returns life to the earth, and from the earth comes new life.
All of these lessons I can see in your flowers.
Thank you for sharing :)
Yes @ecoinstant, beautifully perceived indeed. These themes are all very much there and actually I had been originally considering a presentation along the lines of birth - life - death - rebirth, but instead it came together more subtly built in. Love it that you see this too, and not just in the photos, but in the words as well!
Just read in your 'app to join the alliance' : I am unphased by people who say that I should 'pick a niche'. I do my own thing - agree totally. That's where fun and freedom lie for me - doing my own thing :D
Thanks for visiting and commenting 🔆
Thank you! For replying, for interacting, it makes this whole process more pleasurable. I will follow along on your journey of doing your own thing!
Hi barge,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
How Wonderful!!! Thank you @curie, this is a great honour. Very happy to hear you like it 🔆
Really amazing photos. I like those with your dog the most. You gave him a lovely name. I think it means peace, right? :)
Hey @anasav 🔆 ,
Spot on, Shanti means 'peace', so it's like a mantra every time I call her name or think of her...I'm not her human though, that's my landlord. I'm just a privileged friend with all the fun and little responsibility - and her number one fan! She appears all over my blog, just can't keep her out :).
Thanks for commenting and for the complement, glad you like the pics with Shanti - do you not like flies and insects? lol ...
She is adorable and I also think that we should be just privileged friends of dogs, not the owners. I liked your whole post and photos, they are really nice. I just liked those with Shanti the most because I like animals so much and that is the first thing that I see when I am looking at the photos. ;)
Yesss, animals are something else. And Shanti is an animal princess :D
PS. Thanks very much for the resteem 🔆 🔆 🔆
Hello that is some very nice photos!!i love flowers and my favorite flower is such a classic red rose i just love them! The photo of the dog with the flower on his head is so cute:)
Hello @drawmeaship 🔆 - I see you have a very beautiful sunflower photo on your blog. Glad you like the rose photos - I know, there's something special about a classic red rose that lives beyond the cliches.
The flower on Shanti's head is still attached to the branch - she started sniffing around the roses and I took my opportunity to find her a couronne des roses rouges. And she's a total princess and loves the compliments :D.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I did notice the flower was still attached that why i thought it was such a nice shot:) thank you for passing by on my blog :)
👍
A lot of talented folks on here. Keep it up mate.
Thanks @solcross 👍
You are welcome.
Wow! this makes me see roses in a whole other light! Lucky you to have them be semi wild. I know what you mean how the roses keep drawing you back with the camera. I took so many pictures of my roses but nothng close to the quality of yours. Love the one with the rose on your dog. What's his name? I have a German Shepard too who adds lots to the photos ( takes out lots from the garden too) Thanks for sharing!
Hi @porters, thanks for the compliment - I think the camera and lens may have a lot to do with it, as well as my image-editing skills, including cropping :). Shanti is her name (means 'peace') - and I've got hundreds of photos of her. GSs are such wonderful companions. And if you mean that they dig and that way take lots out of the garden, yeah they do huh? lol.... they add sooooo much to one's life too of course.
It's a great pleasure to share the photos, thanks for visiting 🔆
What a stunning collection - so glad that it came together for you.I keep trying to pick my favourites, scrolling up and down your post and I swear I can almost smell them! I think I've settled on two...
The first is the classic red whorl of the rose which fills up the whole frame. You almost feel like you can touch the velvet softness of those petals.
The second is the beautiful sunlit thorn. I love it so much - so delicate, so spikey!
Thank you far sharing these gorgeous images with us and I hope your bushes keep up their stunning work for a good while to come! E x
Such a pleasure to read your comment @eveningart, thank you for stepping inside the photos :). I like that little thorn too - took a few takes with the macro until I got the point as sharp (haha @ pun) as I eventually did. So glad you liked the photography - thanks for stopping by and saying nice things 🔆
i love your photos, how to shoot it like that shape?
Hi @sadaadrian, thanks for the comment. I see on your blog that you take photos of flowers and work in a garden center :) ... I don't quite understand your question. Can you tell me which photo you are referring to? Or can you rephrase the question. I'd like to give you an answer if I can.
Thanks for visiting anyway
Oh sorry my bad english, I want to talk above you shoot that flying bee. For me it is fantasy that I can not do it.
Aha, right the two photos of the insect in the air!!! I love those ones :)
You know, I was lucky because the insect just hovered in one place for a few seconds and I managed to get focussed on it. If the insect were flying around it would be very difficult - to get a sharp shot of something as small and fast would be pure chance. So no magic at all my friend, just lucky that the fly decided to hover in one place :D .... it's definitely something you can do too. You must have some fantastic flowers and insects in HK to 'dance' with!
Thank you so much, I try many time but still can not focus on a bee 😅😅 I must do it some day😊
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My favourite has to be the third one of the close up red. Flawless.
Thanks @minismallholding. The velvety texture is delicious isn't it - so nice when subjects allow their fleeting beauty to be captured, and uplifting to have it appreciated :)
I did wonder what the reaction to the insects would be (I loved chasing them with the lens and want to find more and more little creatures to photograph - my fav of the lot is #10 in R+W - looks sci-fi-ish to me!), and sure enough they haven't really been mentioned by anyone lol. I guess you are having 'insect' problems of your own atm and may not be well disposed towards them - also sure I'd have a field day with the camera on the holding :o)
BTW did you notice @haikubot's comment below yours? Turns out your comment fits the 5-7-5 syllable haiku pattern exactly (I counted :).
A warm hug to RTB please.
I did like the insect photos too. I find them fascinating and it's always great to see them captured on camera because it's hard to see them up close without them leaving in reality! Sadly for them, though, the rose outshone them a little more for me.
My daughter, @izzydawn, likes to take macro shots of flowers and bugs, so I must remember to show her this. I know she'll appreciate it.
Yes, I saw haikubot. It highlighted the typo I'd made! Lol.
I'll try to remind RTB to drop by and say hi. Work has been stressful for him of late.
LOL, poor wee outshone insects :)
I had a look at Izzy's blog - nice photos of dogs too!
Hmm, sorry to hear that. I hope the time may come soon when he can experience freedom from this particular obligation. I so want to rid myself of the need to work for anyone - or at all really! Doing something I like isn't work of course, I'd love to make a living off blogging, but it ain't quite there yet. Once crypto shoots it'll be different. Maybe a whole load of us will be able to just drop drudgery....it'll be nice when it happens :D
My favourite has
To be the third one off the
Close up red. Flawless.
- minismallholding
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.