On Friday, June 1, a day-long rose photography seminar will be held, starting at 7:30 am and ending at 5:00 pm.

The ARS has approved this seminar for 4 hours of seminar credit for ARS Horticulture Judges and 2 hours of seminar credit for ARS Arrangement Judges.

Registration will be limited to 40 people. See the flyer for further details.

Seminar FlyerR4

Hybrid bracteata, 'Mermaid'

Keeping your camera handy when you are walking through your garden may allow you to photograph roses that are easily damaged by heat, wind, and other forces of nature, as well as roses such as ‘Mermaid,’ which is stunning when she opens but which is known as an “eight-hour wonder.” If I do not photograph her before going to work in the morning, there is nothing left to photograph when I get home from work in the evening.

This is a bloom of ‘Mermaid’ from this morning.

'St. Patrick'

There is always something pleasant about a rose photographed on the bush, just the way it grew.

This ‘St. Patrick’ was nothing but black canes all the way to the base after a brutal cold spell in February (-12 F, unheard of in Albuquerque). When green started to appear at ground level, I was certain it had to be ‘Dr. Huey.’ ‘St. Patrick’ has always done well in the heat of summer, but I was not sure how it would withstand the cold. ‘St. Patrick’ seems to be making a statement not only about its beauty but also about its hardiness this year.

St. Patrick

The hybrid tea ‘St. Patrick’ is known for its high pin-point center and green-tinged petal edges. I wanted to show both of those in a manner that was pleasing to me. The “bull’s eye” and “fill the frame” was not pleasing. This particular subject did not work well with “rule of thirds,” either. To my eye, however, it worked well as a “triangle,” with the leaves as the base of the triangle.

Keep in mind a variety of compositional approaches as you photography your roses, and try photographing the same rose in a variety of ways, if the rose lends itself to that. Some options include “rule of thirds,” “diagonal,” “triangle,” and “spiral,” among others.

As noted, this is the same spray of ‘Cinnamon Delight,’ and the three photos were taken within a total of 5 minutes. Therefore, degree of freshness does not separate one image from the others. It is the angle of the photographs that is the most relevant for discussion.

My issue with photograph #2 is that gaping black hole between the main stem and the stem holding the bloom on the left. And, it is right at one of the four power points, and just draws the eye to it. In addition, the angle of this photograph obscures the symmetry of this spray, which was really outstanding when viewed from a different angle.

Photographs #1 and #3 are similar, with the major difference being the proximity of the leaves to the bottom border. When matted, the leaves will be cropped in Option#3, whereas Option#1 leaves plenty of room for matting without cropping the leaves at the bottom.

Option#1 shows the nice symmetry of the spray, and nothing will get cut off when matting. The bloom at the top has a few petals that show reversion to the yellow component that is a part of any russet rose, and a few points could be taken off for this in the horticultural portion of the judging. But that would be far fewer points than those taken off for that gaping black hole at a power point in Option#2, along with its general lack of balance.

Once again, thanks to everyone who participated in the poll, and particularly to those who shared their thoughts on why they voted the way they did.

Clicking on each photo will allow you to see a larger image.

Please vote for which image you think is the best. As always, it is very helpful if you leave a comment as to why you chose the one you did.

Addendum: I may not have been clear in the original post. This is the same spray of ‘Cinnamon Delight,’ and the three photos were taken within a 5-minute time frame, from different angles.

Cinnamon Delight Option 1

'Cinnamon Delight' Option 2

'Cinnamon Delight' Option 3

Camera settings were f/4, ISO 400, 1/250 sec, focal length 105 mm.

Because this is the same image of the rose, calculating horticulture points for this set is moot.

This exercise is entirely about photographic points, which the different crops illustrate.

When entering an image in a contest, the first thing any photographer should do is read the rules and how the photographs are to be judged. One contest for rose photography is not necessarily the same as the next.

Image C in this exercise comes closest to meeting the guidelines for the ARS Rose Magazine photo contest, where it is clearly stated the rose should be centered and fill the frame as much as possible. This is the “rose catalog” ideal, and that is certainly one approach. Given that many of you have been familiar with that photographic competition, it is not surprising, perhaps, that many of you selected “C” as the winner. Other than focus, there is not a lot of photographic technique that goes in to this, which photographer friends call the “bull’s eye approach.”

The guidelines for the ARS Rose Magazine contest are not the same as the PSWD Rose Photography guidelines, with which we have tried to add some photographic artistry. By the PSWD Score Card, there just is not much in the way of composition or distinction for Image C. It is very bland, and nothing draws they eye to it, not even the dead-center center. It is an image that might do well in one rose photography competition, but not in one judged by the PSWD guidelines and Score Card. It is a “rose catalog” shot.

Image B is perhaps a happy medium between a “bull’s eye” shot and one in which the small size of the rose and the large size of the rim seemed to bother people participating in the poll. Although the rose is centered from left to right, it is not smack dab in the center of the photograph. The stem actually provides a bit of a leading diagonal line to the rose. The rose is in focus and the background is blurred, so that the rose clearly stands out from the background. For the purposes of a rose photography show using PSWD guidelines and the Score Card, Image B is probably the best of the three.

When photographers get together and discuss their images, a question that someone will invariably ask is, “But, would you hang it on the wall?” Personally, I would not hang any of these three images on the wall, but then I have only one photograph hanging on the wall in my house, and that is from back in my film days. However, I find Image A the most interesting and artistically pleasing: the rose is at one of the power points; the background is blurred, and I like the bokeh with the muted colors on the left-hand side of the photo. So, while I would not hang this on the wall, I do think I will use it as the cover for some note cards. I would not do that with either of the other two images.

Once again, the images are from the same photograph, just cropped differently. So, they would get the same points in horticulture from the Guidelines for Judging Roses. There is very little in Entry C for which to award points in composition and/or distinction. We need to move out of the “center it and fill the frame,” which some other rose photography contests stress. The PSWD Score Card awards more photographically artistic approaches, when the horticultural aspects are equal.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and especially to Juanita and Unicorn 41 for taking the time and making the effort to explain their choices.

I agree that the choice comes down to the ‘Marriotta’ spray versus the ‘Gemini’ spray.

I was surprised that no one commented that the ‘Gemini’ spray was in an 8×12 ratio rather than an 8×10 ratio, which, of course, affects some very important things, such as how large the blooms appear in relationship to the space the leaves in the background appear to take up. I am going to repost the ‘Marriotta’ spray and the correctly sized ‘Gemini’ spray.

'Gemini' spray

Class 5 - Mini Spray Marriotta

Let’s start by looking at the roses themselves. We’ll get to photography in a bit.

The blooms in the ‘Gemini’ spray are fresh and have good form. The leaves appear fresh and disease-free. It could be argued the bud should have been removed. I’ve seen hybrid tea sprays with fewer open blooms plus buds win in the Horticulture Division at both District and National Shows; but, if someone wanted to argue that the bud should have been removed, I couldn’t fault the argument. Overall, however, this is an excellent hybrid tea spray that would do well in any Horticulture Division in a rose show.

A close look at the blooms on ‘Marriotta’ reveals them to be past their prime. All have lost the characteristic symmetry of a fresh ‘Marriotta’ bloom, and the few stamens visible are dark. The leaves here also appear healthy and disease-free. However, in a Horticulture Division, this spray would lose some points for the blooms being past their prime.

Using the Score Card, the ‘Gemini’ spray beats the ‘Marriotta’ spray in the points allotted to horticulture, using the Guidelines for Judging Roses.

Now, lets look at the photographic points. On the ‘Gemini’ spray the fourth bloom is out of focus, and a maximum of five points could be lost for that. No points should be taken off for the leaves; in fact, they provide a soft background against which the blooms stand out. Although composition at first glance does not appear to be significant, there is a strong left-to-right diagonal from bottom to top, and a weaker left-to-right diagonal from top to bottom. There are no glaring lighting issues; indeed, this is soft natural light. It is a great horticultural specimen with some photographic issues with focus.
(Just as an aside, this was taken on a hot summer afternoon, when the wind was blowing. I used me to provide shade to the bloom, so that there would not be shadows in the photo. Camera settings were f/9, ISO 125, 1/250 sec, focal length 105 mm. This photo has been cropped from the original 8×12 ratio, and a watermark added, but otherwise there has been virtually no photoshopping.)

Let’s now look at the photographic qualities of the ‘Marriotta’ spray. First, I am really happy that no one dinged me for poor photoshopping, because this is one of the most digitally manipulated rose photographs I have ever done. But, the manipulation started before the photography. This spray’s lead bud had not been pinched, and was totally bloomed out. I wanted to see what I could do with it. So, I removed the main bud, which at this stage, if course, left a huge disbud mark. Oh, well. . .I set up a black background in the shade in the morning, put the camera on a tripod, and shot this image at f/22 (wanted to be sure it was in focus! ), ISO 800, 1/4 sec, focal length 105 mm. Oh, I had it in a glass vase.

I downloaded it, and began setting about to see how I could make this a workable image. It was easy enough to cover the disbud mark. It took a lot more work to make the rim of the glass vase disappear. Then I did a little color manipulation to make the roses “pop.”

In terms of composition, there is pleasing rhythm to this photo, at least as far as the blooms are concerned. The leaves in the lower left-hand corner do not bother me as much as the void in the lower right-hand corner, which does present a problem for this image. However, this would probably lose fewer points than the ‘Gemini’ spray for the fourth bloom being out of focus.

When these photographs are looked at carefully, considering all the criteria of the score card, it is basically a draw. The winner will be decided by the judges, after careful consideration and discussion, deciding which one is going to get the extra half point in distinction that will make it the winner. But that cannot be determined in a “shoot from the hip” manner before careful consideration. I can guarantee you that if two photographs like these are judged in show and one is declared the winner, the photographer of the other is going to hunt the judges down and ask “why was that other photograph judged better?” (Or, they might email me.) If the response to the loser is, “well, can’t you see the other one just has the ‘wow’ factor?” we are going to lose a lot of credibility as judges. We must be prepared to explain why we made the choices we did. “The decision of the judges is final” does not mean we cannot be held accountable for our judging decisions, and they must be based on the use of the Score Card, which is the promise we make to our exhibitors when they enter their photographs using a schedule based on our Master Schedule and containing the Score Card on which the committee has worked so hard.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who participated in this little exercise, and especially those who made carefully considered and thoughtful comments.

Susan Graham
Chair, PSWD Photography Committee

This poll involves selecting the Best of Section – The Rose, from images representing each of the seven classes in the section. Please vote for the one you would select as the best of the seven, using the PSWD Photography Score Card. Click on a photo (below) to see a larger version.

Class 1 - One Bloom HT - Veterans' Honor

Class 2 - HT Spray - Gemini

Class 3 - Shrub Pike's Peak

Class 4 - One Bloom Mini - Hot Tamale

Class 5 - Mini Spray Marriotta

Class 6 - Fully Open - Distant Drums

Class 7 - Cinderella - Erin Alonso

Although not required, it would be very helpful if you would leave a comment as to why you voted for your choice.

Thanks for participating.

Class 1 Rose Portrait
Bill Henslin ‘Peace’

Class2 Rose Close-Up
Dona Martin ‘Night Owl’

Class 3 Rose Art
Dave Mahoney ‘Magic Show’

Class 4 Rose Garden and/or People in the Garden
Zach Fletcher Child Smelling Roses

Class 5 Rose Arrangement Not Awarded

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who entered!