Compositions with Roses

Fruhlingsduft (H. Spinosissima, Kordes, 1949)

Roses are blooming already at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, and I thought I would use my latest trip there to write about how I compose my pictures of rose blooms. I am not a professional photographer, but I have taken thousands of images of roses and other flowers. Here are a few basic observations on several ways to take a picture of a rose.

Close-ups of a single bloom are the easiest for me. Basically, I make sure the bloom is in focus, and then point and shoot. 

Général Schablikine (Tea, Nabonnand, 1878)

Sometimes I even remember to make sure the sun is shining the right way. These pictures almost always come out well. I think it is true of most amateur photographers, and such pictures are what one sees most of the time.

Eugene de Beauharnais (China, Bourbon, Hardy, 1838)

Next, the "two sisters" pictures. 

William Morris (Shrub, Austin, 1998)

The problems I encounter with pictures like these is making sure the two blooms don't merge into each other creating a shapeless mess, and getting the camera to focus so that both blooms are more or less sharp. Still such pictures mostly come out well for me.

Elie Beauvilain (Noisette, Beauvilain, 1887)

These images are most useful for rosarians when they show blooms at different stages of openness, 

Mrs. B.R. Cant (Tea, Cant&Sons, 1901)

such as a bud, or a newly-opened bloom and an aged bloom with its "fade" color.

Rose de Puteaux (Damask, unknown origin, 1665)

The more blooms in a cluster, the trickier it gets to take a good picture.

Souvenir de Mme. Léonie Viennot (Tea, Bernaix, 1898)

I never arrange blooms on a bush in any way, so it is fairly rare for me to find a view where the blooms would be positioned in an interesting way, my camera would focus on the right one, and the light would fall well on them.

Lorraine Lee, Climbing (H. Gigantea, Tea, Mackay, 1932)

Finally, the most difficult images are the ones which present a plant in an unusual way, showing as many blooms as possible...

Général Schablikine

 and offering a dynamic composition with asymmetrically arranged flowers at different distances from the viewer leading the eye across the picture. 

Champion of the World (Bourbon, China, Woodhouse, 1894)

If I am lucky, maybe one in ten such pictures comes out well. 

Dragon's Blood (Floribunda, Barden, 1979)

Still, in spring, when I see a profusion of fresh unspoiled blooms, these are the pictures I try to take most of.

Souvenir de Gilbert Nabonnand (Tea, Nabonnand, 1920)