Secret Admirers

I have spent a rainy Saturday getting flowers and wine...then coming home to do a big flower photo shoot. One photo shoot is for photos to use in a painting for a competition. Another is to add to my photo library some additional shots of roses (I need more, in many colors). The last set of photo shoots was a set of preliminary compositions for a commission that features a floral still life with particular colors.

The roses are not market bought. They are garden ones, that come from what I call the Champion Rose Bush in this garden. It blooms first, continuously and vigorously, and last. Its small-medium size flowers are a bit loose and unremarkable in summer (they fade and open very quickly, then lose petals), but in spring and autumn, its blooms open to be very pretty with more pink on them than in summer. We got storms last night, so I decided I had best collect the nice blooms on that rose bush before they got ruined by storms. Though, with Rose Grazers in the house, I had to bring a big sacrificial bloom in for Winston....who was waiting at the door to see what flowers I brought him. I gave him one and put the nice ones in a vase and popped it in the fridge until today, as photo shoots of flowers are best done in natural light. I did get some nice shots today and one of them is shown above. I will be doing some paintings of these I think, very cheerful and springlike. Photographed in contemporary close ups and also in more traditional still life styles in vase.

When I was doing the photo shoot of the roses, I had some Secret Admirers come visit ! First Winston, who can't resist roses. I did not allow him to linger and graze however ( I know he will graze the roses heartily, which will ruin them)

Then Pook got up and came and checked them out too. Maggie did as well, but did not stick around to be caught on camera (she is shy of being photographed). Pook loves being on camera. So after I shushed him away from thoughts of tasting the petals, he stayed awhile and posed. He is a good cat model !

Pity these are small roses and a small vase, Pook is totally out of proportion to them, he looks like a Giant Lilac Burmese next to the dinky arrangement. (I have photographed him with bigger roses before with great results !) If not for that, I could use one of the photos with him and the pink roses for a painting... !