Faded Rose / Keep Coming Back

Faded Rose

50with50 No. 44

A faded rose bloom is the latest entry in the 50with50 series. And no matter what the world throws at these roses, they keep coming back.

Around this time of year, I start to notice the rose blossoms, figuring that there will not be that many more of them. I am usually a little early in this assessment because there are still a few rose blossoms after I get a photo of one. But I enjoy getting a photo of one each year anyway. Even if it is not the last one.

Another reason that I photographed this rose is that it might not last due to human error. The other day I was trimming the weeds around the house. As I was doing so, I accidentally also trimmed one of our rose bushes. It had a beautiful rose on it, too. Oops. You better look out if you see me coming with a weed eater. I might not have an accurate aim with that thing. Watch your toes!

After that, I thought I better preserve this one in a photo before it got trimmed, too. Just in case it was the last one for a reason other than it being the end of the season. But there are a few more blooms about to open up, so I will stay away with the weed eater for now.

This particular rose was not as faded as this photo might make it look. The photo processing I used makes it look that way. Read more about that in the “About the Photo” section down below.

Keep Coming Back

One nice thing about our rose bushes is that they keep coming back. We are not your top-notch gardeners, so having hearty plants is a good thing.

We have trimmed these bushes, both on purpose and accidentally. They have survived frost. They have survived near-drought conditions. Dogs, bugs, children, and other things have not always been kind to them. But the roses are still here.

Just the other day, Laura was pointing out some houses that have some excellent landscaping. That isn’t us, and we are okay with it. But we do like a little bit of color around our house, so we need something that will stand up to adverse conditions.

If you are like us and are not great gardeners, find some plants that will keep coming back.

And if things get tough for you, keep coming back. We could learn a lot from these roses. Never stop growing, no matter what.

Bible Verse

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10

About the Photo

The 50mm lens really shows off its depth of field ability here, even though the aperture was only set to f/2.4 instead of f/1.8. I made that choice intentionally, however. Previous versions have not had enough of the rose in sharp focus for my tastes. So I closed the aperture just a bit, knowing that the background would still have that good bokeh quality that I wanted.

Just a few photos left in the 50with50 series! But of course, that does not mean that I will stop using the 50mm lens. And I will still keep tagging those photos with the Sony FE 50mm tag to make them easy to find, if that is what you are looking for.

I started off with full color for this photo, but it did not look right. The rose was actually too colorful for what I was trying to do. Once I backed off on the color settings, this photo looked much better to me. This has the feeling of that last rose as summer has ended, which goes along with the atmosphere that I wanted. However, in reality you would not be able to tell the difference between this rose and one that had bloomed in the height of summer if I had used more “normal” coloring.

Sometimes the faded look is a good look. And sometimes the full-color look is good. It just depends on what story you want to tell or what feeling you want to get across. That is the fun thing about art - you can change things around to make them how you want them to be to communicate with your audience. You don’t always have to just settle for a “standard” look. Feel free to experiment!

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: SonyFE 50mm f/1.8
Date: September 10, 2020
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee