The battle of the roses

On Monday two kind people each brought us a bunch of roses. I blipped the first ones here.

My experience with roses has not been brilliant. Over the years they have tended to keel over prematurely. I've read up, taken advice, but they don't like me.

As you see this is one of the bunch doing very well. The others are lagging behind and have not started to open yet. On this occasion it's a contest between Aldi and M&S. We'll see what happens.

After thinking I was much better yesterday, I've been grotty today. Enough said. My voice tried to be bass last week and is now aiming for soprano. 

It has rained all day and I am so sorry for the people who are flooded, yet again.

Techncal info: the rose was standing in a vase and  illuminated from above with a daylight bulb. The camera was handheld using a 50mm lens. I removed the rather dirty looking shadow and then used a white fill for the background. A fill layer of 20% white was added and masked off over the centre of the rose. A second layer was applied to create a more romantic effect.

I had other ideas for how to process this, but did not have the energy. I've used Photoshop on my new computer and soon realised that all my usual pre-sets are not in place. Now there's a job for a rainy day........

I also want to start using a Wacom tablet but the cable did not reach from the desktop. Equipment had to be shifted.