Meander through the garden this morning...

With so much in bloom I opted to play in the garden with the camera this morning. I've been shooting and working from RAW for quite sometime now for a lot of reasons. Adobe's CS5 has some really powerful tools for taking that RAW file and getting it ready for use in photoshop with nominal adjustments needed. The advantage to this is that you are using all the data captured at the time of the shoot and have it available for use as needed.

Anytime you have an uncompressed file you have more to work with which helps. Of course to get it to fit here in downloadable fashion I do have to resize and reduce the dpi and save in jpeg fashion which unfortunately compresses out a lot of detail. In the end you get here a flavor of the final image, the real deal needs to be seen in person for the full effect.

The two roses are among my favorites in the garden. The pink one is "Shropshire Lass" that is a beautiful single rose that blooms just once a year. The yellow is my favorite of all the yellows out there. It too is a David Austin English Rose, and is named "Golden Celebration".

A little meander in my garden

Yesterday was a strange day, misty in the am then it cleared up fast.  I spotted a few of the Fortnight Lily aka African Iris all covered in droplets that the sun hadn't dried up and HAD to get a quick pic.  While I was at it I shot a few more of Shropshire Lass.

All of these were post processed from the RAW image data file into the Orton style.  The final images were given the look and feel of the old Cibrachrome print material from back in my dip and dunk days.

Enjoy the pics and the coming weekend!

Shropshire Lass the most fleeting of English Roses

It is no secret that I am a fan of the English Roses, especially those from David Austin.  This particular rose, "Shropshire Lass" is one of the few single roses that make the category.   Barely.  

Whereas most of the other English Roses will bloom repeatedly this blooms only once.  Just one fleeting day I get the most perfectly pink fading to nearly white blossoms.  Given the size of the bush (nearly5 diameter and over 6 foot tall) one would expect it to be a hardy bloomer, but its wild rose parentage in the mix interceded and allows it to bloom only once a year.   I'll take it for its fleeting beauty is so special.

Pair of English Roses

Nature has a way of giving us little gifts when we least expect it.  This bouquet was a gift from nature, two rose canes, different roses intertwined and opened almost at the same time giving me this little present next to where I park my car.

The image was shot in open shade, IE in the shade with a bright blue sky above which shifted colors.  In the old days you'd have to compensate by adding more "yellow" to your print, but with the magic of PC and great RAW processors you can just use a pull down menu to compensate.  I'm liking this whole automation thing.

The final image was post processed in the Orton style as I love the romantic impressionistic image you get at the end.  I post processed all with CS2 and Virtual Photographer.

Enjoy, "Pair of Roses".

"Peach Blossom" ala orton

A little stroll in my garden yielded this English Rose "Peach Blossom" fully blown and ready to drop its petals.  Post processed in the Orton style from the raw file and dumbed down for ease of uploading and downloading.  Final image to be hung large format style at Paint n Play 2 Art Studio and Gallery soon.  Enjoy this teaser, see the real deal next month.

My rose got a "sport"

A sport is a new rose off an existing bush.  All hybrids are susceptible to the phenom, but it is pretty rare.  I got one on an English Rose "Golden Celebration" and it bloomed this week for the first time.

I knew something was up when the bud unfurled into this evil red multi pointed star.  Eventually each of those points opened into hundreds of feathery petals.  Very unusual as Golden Celebration is a fully cupped and doubled traditional rose.  Here it looks like a chrysanthemum or daisy on crack.  IT still SMELLS like Golden Celebration, just took on a new form.  

Regardless, it is interesting and I may just contact the Huntington Library.   They have a large collection of English Roses including one called "Huntington's Hero" that was a sport from the English Rose "Hero".  Never know, maybe they'd want to propagate.  We could call it "fraz's celebration" since it sported of my plant.  Maybe, or the ego just needs to be reeled in.

A little teaser for the October Show

I suppose I could call this roses two ways. You can't see it here, but I've done the printing on two different papers. One on an archival matte paper, the other on wet watercolor paper.

I don't think it matters as much the paper as if the image was well composed with a good use of light and color. In this case the image was post processed from RAW in the Orton style. It works regardless of the final presentation. The wet watercolor though diffuses more and definitely meanders more into the soft impressionists mode than anything else. The watercolor paper version will be a one-of-artists-proof kinda image. Once it is gone it is gone and could never be duplicated again given the uncontrollable effects of ink on wet paper.

The rose is a David Austin English Rose called "Golden Celebration" from my garden.

See you at the Celebrate the Arts show October 11&12 here in Monrovia.