Rose Study 11, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

As everyone knows, roses are associated with seduction and obsession. As Diana Wells puts it, “the rose represents love, magic, hope, and the mystery of life itself.”

My obsession with roses as a gardener was swift and overwhelming, until my small garden was overwhelmed with more roses than could possibly fit. Today, I find myself as a gardener more excited by flowers such as hellebores, echinacea, and protea from South Africa such as my leucospermum.

Obviously, I am still obsessed with photographing roses. Few flowers can equal the rose for beauty of line and shape, not to mention sumptuous coloration.

These two images are two of the studies from my rose photography marathon this week.

The photo above was stopped down to f/40 for maximum depth of field and then underexposed to bring out the tonal richness in the dark red rose.

On the other hand, I overexposed the rose below to emphasize the transparency of the variegated petals.

Now for something different, as I’m off to Yosemite with Julian and Nicky!

View this image larger.

Related link: my Rose set on Flickr.