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Okavanga — Cleopatra Roses 2
#flowers #roses #africa
Published: 2014-12-21 08:49:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 957; Favourites: 48; Downloads: 8
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Description
Roses from the gardens at Cleopatra Farmhouse - with an especial thank you to Amen who works so diligently and skillfully helping to keep the gardens in shape, and who tends the garden and wild birds.Christmas Flowers:iconredsparklesplz::iconsantaclause: :iconredsparklesplz:
By way of thanks to ALL my friends here at DeviantArt at Christmas Time, this Journal presents a selection of images of flowers from my trip to KwaZulu Natal. The shots come mainly from the gardens at Cleopatra Farmhouse, and the surrounding Highmoor in the Drakensberg Mountains.
I should like to thank in particular the following for their continued support of my work, their encouragement and their ever friendly conversations, not to mention many hundreds of faves.
Scooby777 feigenfrucht LindArtz martaraff kayandjay100 fotoponono mikeloveridge SiradLah Canankk My-he-art SabakuNoShi IRphotogirl SparksflyStudios MYPeanutGallery The-Dude-L-Bug jennystokes Lady-Compassion ingeline-art BrightStar2 Enkased MadGardens Thelma1
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Comments: 27
Lovely shot! I love the 'breathing space' you gave to the flower and it conveys the sense that it is out there at its natural environment - not in a 'pot'.
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Many thanks, Henry - this was in the rose garden area, but I agree that you often want to convey the individuality of a flower head, and you do need to give it space.
Cheers
David
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This is a perfect photo - such a lovely soft colour
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Many thanks, Pamela - seems to be quite popular.
Cheers
David
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love these muted blooms, they seem to tell a story of a life well lived....
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Indeed, lots to read into such images, Mike.
Cheers
David
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Such a beautiful and lush composition, David ~ absolutely lovely capture! 
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Lush indeed, Coco - lots of lovely petals.
Many thanks.
David
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Many thanks, John!
Cheers
David
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Thank you very much. The gardeners at Cleopatra are the real magicians.
Cheers
David
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You're welcome!
I agree, they must really have green fingers.
When I saw this photo the first time, it caught my attention for they look like the roses of the painter Greg Albert.
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I've checked Greg Albert out on Google, but he does not appear to have his own website. Interesting though - long time teacher of art.
Many thanks for that.
Cheers
David
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I noticed that too, no website. He already made and edited a couple of books on drawings though.
If you go to this Amazon link, you will see on a book of decorative painting that he co-wrote with Jennifer Long, "The Best of Decorative Painting"
www.amazon.com/Best-Decorative…
And on the cover, you will see the roses that I had in my mind when I saw yours.
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Good one - I'm tuned into Amazon.uk - so when I looked there I missed this. Yes, agree - I was thinking about this when I was at the gym this morning - something to do while pounding on the treadmill. Painting and photography have obvious commonalities, but in painting the artist normally has complete control of what he/she is going to put into the image. Whereas in photography, unless you are using a studio, there is sometimes little control of time, light, and subject. So the photographer has to think in terms of what to take out of a shot, if possible. The big technique for that is cropping, but in this case that darker pink rose head on the right actually interferes with a nice triangular composition, and it is way to difficult to clone out. So, photography is usually a compromise of what can be done in the time, light, and subject available.
Good talking.
David
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Yes, they do have things in common. One thing though, we artists are limited by our prior choices in the course of the work. Sometimes, a bad decision or any attempt to improve the piece can be fatal. We always have to perfect our technique and improve our skill all the time; often you would think you succeed at something, there will be another artist that can do the same thing two times better than you. They say not to compare but you have to in a way if you want to stay relevant. You know when you work on a piece for more than twenty hours or more, you submit it and people disregard it, it can hurt. Oh and lots of emotion went into that process too, hehe. But if I submit a photo, and they disregard it, I do not care as much because I can think "it 's not me, it was the camera" or they just do not like the subject...so it doesn't hurt me as much. I am sure that there must be quite a lot of competition among photographers as well and the cost of the resulting "arms race" of new and better equipment can be discouraging.
I think your photograph is good as it is. It is well balanced and there is a soft feeling that emanates from it. The central rose is the real star, it looks perfect and that's where our attention is captivated. If you have Photoshop maybe you can select and blur the rose on the right 10 to 20 % as an experiment so it will fade out a bit. But as a rose lover, I enjoyed that photo a lot and it was the first time I saw a rose with that shape on DA. To me it was perfect!
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Agreed about working on skills, and about things going wrong. I know a few professional artists and they have commented that an attempt at improvement can lead to disaster. One very experienced and nationally known Scottish artist told me that he would often scrap and throw away pieces that he had worked on because he knew that they would never be "right". Better to start again was his view. I agree with him - many of my shots get ditched during post-processing because I cannot get the feel correct.
I came back to look at this image again, and have now changed my mind! I now think that darker rose actually helps make the image, as there is a nice dynamic diagonal from bottom left to top right. Sometimes, you have to trust your original feeling.
Many thanks.
David
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Yes, sometimes it is better to get rid of a piece that is not to your liking than breaking your head
over it and losing time re-working on it indefinitely. I agree.
Wow, it really makes its beautiful shape and colours pops out even more. A good idea you had!
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Lovely photo! I love how the middle portion of the pink flower in the foreground looks.
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That's what caught my eye, Linda.
Cheers
David
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