Rose Red

So lately I have had this urge to really play with focus and color. I just feel like I am painting when I take a photo. Broad strokes of a heavy brush, laden with bright paint. Today, on the way into the house, lugging mail, purse and all sorts of school gear, along with my 9 year old dragging her own mountain of life-sustaining routine gear, I happened upon a rose growing on a bush alongside my house. This bush continues to produce the most stunning roses, with no help from me I might add. We have no idea what to do with the thing! And yet it grows, and yet it showcases God's stunning masterful hand and His delicate care for every aspect of our planet, that He would create something so perfect and so serene...and it's just a plant! Imagine how much care He took with us.

Drawn to its beauty, I hurried inside, ceremoniously dumped all my junk on the table and raced outside with my camera. Technically, many photographers would think these images are a total wash. Failures. They are noisy, out of focus, and kind of all over the place. Definitely not headed to the next cover of your favorite gardening magazine. But I love them. They make me feel pretty. They make me smile. They make me feel like I painted a masterpiece. If only to borrow from the true Master's hand for just a moment, to capture His handiwork in streaks of red and green.

I hope you like them! What do you think? Failure or not??