I found her outside my front door
Emotional Wellness
Out the front of my home there is a rose garden which sits on either side of the path leading up to the house steps. The rose gardens are shaped symmetrically and actually look like angel wings from an aerial view point.
These gardens were planted by the previous owners of the house. They hold 8 Iceberg Rose plants, 4 on each side. They deliver the most beautiful scent and give us armfuls of roses for months on end. All pure white and perfectly formed. Fitting for the angel wing gardens they grow in.
Whenever a strong wind blows we end up with masses of white rose petals across the lawn, it is a beautiful sight to see them blowing in the wind.
In the process of creating The Humble Hunter portfolio
Attention needed to be given to those people who give constantly without ever expecting anything in return. Whether it’s a smile, a compliment or a helping hand. There are beautiful people out there who will fall over themselves at the opportunity to help others. I needed to cover that story and the pure, white and perfect roses out my front door were just what I needed for this job.
To be honest, I struggled with this one. I tried many different aspects diving in searching for those elusive lines and elements that will tell the story the exact way I wanted them to. It took quite a few attempts to start to build the photograph I was envisioning inside my head.
This photograph needed to be angelic, pure, perfectly perfect and giving the feeling of someone who humbly does their own thing but is open and ready to be of service at any given moment.
White of course was the colour here. White offers the energy of purity, sincerity, brilliance, protection and remind us of our Angels.
The trouble is, finding her story took me four days. That is not a typo, seriously finding her story and taking this photograph took me four days! I was hell bent on having a photo of Wisteria in the portfolio though, so I wasn’t going to stop until I was done.
Where to from here?
Originally I searched deep inside this rose, filling my frame with her petals. I adored the experience from a side view though… the way the petals resemble offerings, the rose from the side appears to be giving. Each petal is a gift and the rose is giving it’s gift to many from many different angles. After spending a fair bit of time exploring the rose with my macro lens, I kept returning to the side view and knew that the story was there. Macro lens still in hand, I keep coming from a side view but couldn’t quite express what I wished to so close up. Moving further away was the answer but this also meant there would be a background to consider and potentially another colour introduced… the only colour I wanted in this photograph was white though so the only option was to back light the photo so a stronger white would wrap around the white rose.
I hung a layer of white rip stop over my north facing window to diffuse the light, then added a sheer curtain to amplify this effect further. Rip stop is the fabric used to make kites, or line a tent. Here I could photograph straight into the window light and still be able to maintain detail in the rose and ensure there wouldn’t be any light leaks or light glow preventing a clear separation of the white rose from the white background. The background would be white but a brighter white surrounding the rose almost like a glowing light, a halo if you will.
So much detail
With my beautiful white rose in place I can begin to find the correct exposure and angle. This rose was so detailed in its form. I looked at her from each side and loved the way she leaned ever so slightly to the right, almost as if her head was too heavy to carry. From this viewpoint there was also a petal that dropped lower than the others on the right hand side, one petal that had a beautiful curved shape on the left, and one gorgeous petal that was coming from the rose straight towards me. I felt as if this rose was giving to me also! Out of all of the gifts/petals this rose had given, it had one for me too – such a special feeling.
I wanted the sharp focus to be there on that petal so anyone who looked at it would feel as though they were receiving a gift also.
This photograph was still taken with my macro lens, all of my photos have been taken with my macro lens and I wanted keep in line and have my work consistent. This rose was a decent size and I would not normally use a macro lens to document a complete rose, but it also gave a beautiful bokeh. A fancy term used to describe the focus fall off, and blur behind the point of focus. I only wanted the one petal being given to the viewer to be in sharp focus, the rest of the petals were for others and the focus needed to be on that one petal reaching in my direction. I used a small white reflector to send some light back into the rose from the front and above to be sure each petal could be individually distinguished allowing the many altruistic deeds to be counted. Once the story was set, technically taking the photograph was a relatively easy task.
Her story
The story of The Altruist describes the many gifts to be like waves ebbing endlessly from the depths of the ocean. This can be seen in the abundance of petals being offered in many directions. The story continues to describe The Altruists unconditional love to be an innate flow from their core. As you can see, each of the petals are extended from the core of the rose. The last line; Their gifts of kindness denotes a beautiful life of service. The essence of this photograph is wrapped up in that last line. The whole feel of the photograph exudes brilliance and sincerity. The only thing this photograph is missing is a pair of wings 😉
I love that this rose and many others like it live outside my front door. I feel very blessed to be able to archive such beauty for the rest of all time and know that she was found at home.
