a lesson from my neighbour's roses

From the large window in my studio, I can see a corner of our next door neighbour's front garden.  During the past week or so, a brand new rose bush that she had planted bloomed fully and beautifully.  And during the past week or so, every now and then I would look up and notice them, and think I should really go out there and photograph those.

Then, about two days ago, despite the general state of exhilaration I've been enjoying, I had a couple of conversations that left me feeling pretty beaten around the edges.  After about 24 hours of feeling down, I looked out the window.  And since shooting often makes me feel better, I grabbed my camera, called over my shoulder to Marcus that I would be back in a minute, and went outside.

As I neared the rose bush, I realized that up close, they weren't looking as great as I thought they would:  Houston hasn't had rain in months, and the rose petals looks scorched and burned, and, weirdly, the tops of the taller roses' petals were worn-looking with large white blotches, like they had been bleached and faded from the sun.

God, they look like I feel, I thought.  But I aimed my camera and shot anyway.

After a few minutes of shooting, I realized that I was sort of loving the images that were resulting.  It seemed like these roses didn't care that they were worn and brittle; in fact, they were still actually pretty awesome.

Lesson there, I think.

Anyway, after shooting, I felt better.  So I went ahead and came back inside.

Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Be gentle with yourselves, and don't forget to appreciate who you are: scorched, bleached bits and all.

(By the way, loving your sweet emails in response to my request for interest yesterday!  It's going to take me a while to go through them, so please be patient with me -- but feel free to keep them coming.  And thank you.  I continue to be blown away by how much you all support me and my work.)

Images:  Photographed with my Nikon D300, 60mm micro lens.  aperture 3.2, shutter speed 1/320, ISO 200.  Incidentally, the only way I processed these were to bump contrast and increase sharpness a bit.  The startling colour is all its own.

Song: Missing by Everything But The Girl