The Wilting Rose

When I set out to begin my Final Project for Digital Photography, I had every intention of photographing the life of a rose from fresh bloom to dry and dead. I planned on using a tie-dyed rose (frequently sold at our local florist) and shoot the images in color. However, things don't always go according to plan. The flower shop, given the time of year, was full of poinsettias, Christmas wreaths, and other seasonal plants. The only roses available were red and yellow; I opted for the latter. With my newly purchased rose in hand, I was ready to begin photographing. I was shocked when, after several days of not watering the flower, storing it hanging upside-down, it had not started to dry out. Apparently, I underestimated the time it takes for a rose to fully dry out. After a few more days, the rose was still not drying out. However, the petals were wilting and curling. That was when my project took a turn, and changed from "The Life of a Rose" to "The Wilting Rose, inspired by Dominique Bollinger.

Who is Dominique Bollinger, you may ask? Bollinger is a French photographer from Lyon. I came across his Photography while searching for inspiration in terms of flower photography. I have always loved flower photography - However, in the past, all of my nature photographs were taken in color. Color, as I mentioned above, was my original intention for this project as well. I stumbled across Bollinger's Flower Photography collection and fell in love with his high detail, high contrast, black and white photos. I felt inspired to give black and white flower photography a try, and I loved the results. My project used both macro and still-life photography, as I wanted to study the rose from every possible distance and vantage point.

While the photos below are black and white, they did not start out that way. That transformation was part of the editing process that I applied to each image. Each photo was cropped to the desired composition, the saturation of each then reduced to eliminate color. Then, I heightened the contrast of each photo to enhance the details and create depth. Finally, I adjusted the levels on each photo, brightening the light tones and deepening the dark ones. This whole process really enhanced the detail in each photo, lending to the overall organic feel of the images. The still-life images present a concrete form, while the macro images and close-ups are a bit more abstract. Although I tried to tell a bit of a story about the flower's life through the photos, a bit of it got lost... However, as the photos are viewed from top to bottom, one can note the subtle changes in the rose's health.

Aside from being inspired by Bollinger's work, I didn't do any research for this project. I have grown comfortable with my camera and how to use it, and my six years of experience working in Adobe Photoshop prepared me for the editing process. My goal was not to recreate Bollinger's work, simply to build off of his ideas. I am definitely happy with the results I got, and I hope everyone else enjoys them as well.

Note: Click on each photo to see full-sized image

Platform used

Adobe Photoshop CS5.  Copyright 1990 - 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors.

References

Bollinger, Dominique.  Dominique Bollinger Photography.  2008.  Web.  25 November 2012.

The Wilting Rose

A Brief Introduction

Welcome to LMP.photography, where I will be hosting my Digital Photography final project! Having used this site for prior classes such as Drawing I, Two Dimensional Design, and Wildlife Ecology, I think it's really the best option to host my final project. I've been tossing around the idea of putting together a website of my photography for some time now, but I am not the most techno-savvy when it comes to writing code... So this seems like a simpler, equally effective option... While it's useful for the project, it will continue to be useful for my own personal use in displaying my photography. No post would be complete without a photo, so here's one for kicks...

Solitude on the beach - Wild Dunes, Isle of Palm, SC - 2011