flowers on the move

I went to the rose garden in a city park today and tried various movement techniques as I took pictures. Shaking, rotating, panning, etc.

This shot is of 4 large roses that were mostly surrounded by green. I liked the short-shake result the best. It seems to give it a painting-like appearance, Impressionistic I suppose.

I cropped it to a square, slightly darkened it and very slightly boosted saturation. I slowed down the camera settings as much as I could, f8/ISO 50/EC+0.3. Other than that, it's gotta be trial-and-error to find a result you enjoy. (Thank God for digital!)


This next one represents my best results from the rotational movement. What I found here was that I liked the photo better if the center of the rotation was nearer to a "traditional" subject, such as an individual flower. To me, this photo shows a central bloom that all the others play second fiddle to.

Post processing and camera settings were similar to the first shot above.

Other shots that didn't make it here were the multi-color types. I've seen other people's efforts at those and like them very much, but this particular garden has a lot of green between different types of roses, so the horticultural crowd can feast on specific breeds, or whatever. Wildflowers or eclectic gardens would probably work better for the multi-color shots, huh?