Flower Photography

Flower Photography

Flower Photography

I wouldn’t say that I am a passionate flower photographer, but sometimes the pure beauty of a flower forces me to get out my camera and try to capture it. I’ve been working backwards through my portfolio (of 120,000 images!) to find the best ones to upload to my Pictorem portfolio, when I came across some lovely images of a rose that I took way back in 2012.

The backstory is that I had taken my wife for her birthday to the Inn at Perry Cabin in St Michaels, Maryland, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, and had ordered some flowers and champagne to be in the room for our arrival. The roses were beautiful (as was the champagne) and so I decided to try to photograph them for posterity!

Bunch of red roses in vase on patio table with white wine in harbor setting in St Michaels, MD
Bunch of red roses in vase on patio table with white wine in harbor setting in St Michaels, MD

Of course, they look good as they are, but I later decided to see if I could create something more artistic from them, and so set about trying to find specific roses that looked particularly special. My first attempt was this image of a single rose surrounded by the greenery of the bouquet:

Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine's Day or birthday bouquet. Prints available in my online store
Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine’s Day or birthday bouquet. Prints available in my online store

The wider shots was a little fussy, if I’m honest:

Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine's Day or birthday bouquet
Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine’s Day or birthday bouquet

The roses are individually very pretty, but together they are just too much. And so, I tried a different approach in Photoshop to spin and blur the roses and still have the focus on the center one. This is certainly different and does give a much more intriguing view of the bouquet.

Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine's Day or birthday bouquet. Prints available in my online store
Detailed close shot of velvet red roses in romantic Valentine’s Day or birthday bouquet. Prints available in my online store

Of course, we can also try a little bit of digital painting, and so for my final image, here is an impressionistic oil painting of a rose in a bouquet:

Digital impressionistic oil painting of a single rose in a bouquet of others given as a romantic Valentines day gift. Prints available here
Digital impressionistic oil painting of a single rose in a bouquet of others given as a romantic Valentines day gift. Prints available here

Well, what do you think – did I capture the beauty of a rose in these images? Let me know below in the comments!

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Katrina Gunn Art

    22 Nov 2022 Reply

    Lovely roses – and champagne/sparkling wine to go with them! A lovely and romantic gesture. I would paint the same image you put the filter onto, but I’d handle the color just a little bit different. Then again, that’s probably why we are two separate artists!

  2. jim hughes

    25 Nov 2022 Reply

    The combination of spin and selective blur, isolating one rose, is actually pretty cool!

    1. Steve Heap

      26 Nov 2022 Reply

      Thanks Jim – I struggled a bit with how to make this more intriguing!

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