I didn’t realize how similar this photo was to last week’s image until I saw them next to each other in my Flickr gallery. And because of that similarity, I almost didn’t even post it this week. It felt like I should have something a bit different, perhaps grander or with some kind of deeper meaning or symbolism to kick off the new year. Anything but what basically amounts to a re-skinned version of the same shot I put up last week.
And yet, here we are :) Why? I’m glad you asked! And while I’m at it, happy new year! It’s only been about a week since 2026 started, but I hope it’s been a good one for you and portends good things ahead as well.
So about this photo. See, the thing is, in a lot of ways it’s very much a classic Weekly Fifty photo: a single easily-identifiable subject in the center, a simple color pallet, an interesting out-of-focus background to add context, and the usual trappings of the kinds of images you’ve seen on here many times over the years. It’s the kind of picture I like taking and, hopefully, you like looking at. Some would say this isn’t real art because it’s not courageous or challenging or whatever, but, to those I would say…it’s my blog and I get to do what I want :)
The thing is, this is actually quite different in some notable ways. Subtle, perhaps, but notable nonetheless. For one, the light source on the subject is entirely artificial which is a significant departure from most, if not all, of the flower-in-the-center-with-blurry-background photos I have ever taken. I shot this early in the morning while walking across campus on the way to work, and noticed this single rose stretching upwards towards a waist-high fixture illuminating the sidewalk below. I had my usual combination of Nikon D750 and 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, and thought that the flower itself would be an interesting photograph just because it was early morning and the combination of artificial light and deep shadows in the background would be interesting in its own right.
But then, as if I had stumbled into a Billy Mays infomercial, I found more. I realized that two additional sidewalk lights in the background could be used to add a whole new dimension to the photo. I crouched down with my camera and moved around from side to side until they were framing the subject in the center, and took a handful of shots at f/2.8 to see how things turned out. I was not super close to the rose and wanted the lights in the background to be big, bright, and blurry so I figured f/2.8 would be just right.
And in the process I learned, once again, that when shooting photos like this, how easy it is to over-do it on the depth of field. The initial photos I took had just the tiniest sliver of the flower in focus, with the front and back being little more than an orange blur. Sure the lights in the background were huge and bright, but it was definitely not worth the tradeoff. I took one more picture at f/5.6, packed up my stuff, and headed to work. And that final shot, uncropped, is the one you see here. Aside from just a bit of standard Lightroom editing (shadows, highlights, etc.) I used the AI Denoise feature to turn an ISO 2800 image into essentially an ISO 100 image. I really like that tool :)
The end result is a picture that bears some significant similarities to many that I have taken in the past, but differs in some interesting ways too. It was a fun photo to take, and I hope it’s a welcome addition to 2026 for you.
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