For far too many years, I have lamented all the great photographic opportunities I missed because I didn’t have a camera with me. I would always tell myself that, next time, I would have it.
Such magical, and meaningless, words because when the next time came, I would find myself making the same promise I had made the time before. And, the time before that, and the time before that, and round and round I went.
But, I have gotten better about having a camera with me. Part of that is because I, at the start of this year, resolved to keep one with me so I didn’t miss capturing opportunities when they presented themselves. And, if you read my previous post, you know that I plan on posting a photo every week, which provides additional incentive to always be prepared.
This newfound preparation was the key to my photographing this incredible rose instead of experiencing the disappointment of yet another missed opportunity.
After some prodding from both my wife and my dog, I decided to join them on their daily walk the other day. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door with them.
Just down the street, I found a rose bush growing in a neighbor’s yard. Well, actually, I was lagging behind trying to find something to photograph. It was really my dog who found it, and my wife who pointed out it was a rose bush. Walking over to it, I found this single bright red rose all by itself with some beads of water still standing on its petals.
Processing of the image was pretty minimal with minor adjustments to increase contrast and add some texture. Reviewing the image, though, I discovered the image was a little soft, so I ran it through Topaz Labs’ Sharpen AI software, which did an incredible job of eliminating the softness.
I wanted the rose to be the focal point, and I found the surrounding leaves of the rose bush distracted from that. To correct this, I moved the green and yellow saturation sliders all the way to the left turning the leaves to black and white.
But, I still wasn’t quite satisfied. Despite their desaturated color, the leaves still seemed to overpower the rose. So, I decided to crop the image, which is not something I normally like to do. Cropping the image into a 1:1 aspect, commonly referred to as a square, eliminated the excess leaves and focused the attention on the rose achieving the picture I wanted to create.