Shakespeare was right!

Rose, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

When he wrote “That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet” – they really are a beautiful and aromatic flower. I’ve taken lots of photos of roses, you’ve probably seen them, you’re probably bored of them but still they keep coming. This time something a little different composition wise, though a still a traditional side-on, shallow depth of field image I positioned myself in such a way as to use the bokeh background to provide a halo around the flower. Well, that’s about as artistic as I’m going to get (apart from flouncing off in a huff in you don’t like it) so you’re going to have to lump it.

As well as yesterday’s image, this really was from the batch of photos using the last light of the day; in fact, as I was photographing the rose, the sun which had been illuminating the flower so well went down behind the walls of the attraction (the Eden Project is based in a disused Clay Mine, clay mining carried out in an open cast mine).

There’s nothing as good as the sun when it comes to key light sources; of course you can use numerous lighting solutions, but these aren’t really convenient in the great out doors, plus they tend not to give that warm glow that the sun can give. I’m specifically thinking about images I’ve taken of big cats where the sun’s rays make such a difference. You only have to look back at my Leopard photos from the Masai Mara where a close profile looks quite dull in comparison to the photos of it on the fallen tree – the difference being late afternoon direct sunlight. Pop.

I’ve decided not to post all my photos from the Eden Project, they were okay but I’m eager to get to the Newquay Zoo images – a day when the sun didn’t make an appearance at all. All the photos have little contrast to them, but are still appealing. Honest. Really.. they are!

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