Rose, ribbon and heart
I had some time this morning for following my still-life photo project but the mind was not there at all. I took several objects out of cabinets and saw no usage in them so I put them back, and felt absolutely no inspiration for creating a composition. You know that oppressive silence inhabiting your mind instead of burst of ideas, don’t you? Frankly, that’s where I would have left before.
But isn’t it the reason why we so often don’t get anywhere – because we give up too soon? We expect wonders from the beginning and when they don’t arrive fairly quickly, we don’t persist in the effort?
Yesterday I bought some cut roses to decorate my kitchen so eventually I decided to take one and try some ideas with it. Flowers rarely disappoint… I started with the rose in a small vase and a ribbon positioned in different places, then I added a small wooden heart and finally during processing I added a texture with a text in it. The effect is subtle but the writing seems to complement the atmosphere of the image nicely.
As you might have noticed, I like simple compositions…
![](https://sharingmyreflections.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Rose-ribbon-and-heart-without-writing_petra_pavlatkova.jpg)
From the technical point of view, I tried two different lenses (70-200 mm versus 16-80 mm), it was very interesting to compare the results. In this case I liked better the results achieved with the telephoto lens, the perspective and relation of the objects in the image looked much more natural.
As for lighting, I tried to direct the soft-box light from different angles and distance, with and without a reflective board, and that is science… Well, not rocket science, but it makes you consider what options you have and what result you want to achieve. Quite an adventure.
![](https://sharingmyreflections.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Rose-ribbon-and-heart-with-writing_petra_pavlatkova.jpg)
So eventually – even though it didn’t look so at the beginning – it was an enriching and motivational exercise by which I learned a lot. I even have some ideas for next time, who would have guessed…
![](https://sharingmyreflections.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Spring-in-the-woods-03_petra_pavlatkova-75x75.jpg)
![](https://sharingmyreflections.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bird-with-candle_petra_pavlatkova-75x75.jpg)