The Dead Roses Series | Spilled Horizon

When I started this photo series last summer, I was in a really dark place (mostly in my mind because summers in MI are actually quite pretty). I think now that I've finally decided take control of my future, this final photo in the series is very fitting. For a very long time, I let fear and uncertainty create dark spaces around me and weigh me down and even though this still happens sometimes, at least now I know there's a light--a really bright light--that will eventually flood the darkness and reveal my truth. 

Day 11: the saga continues...I'm wondering how I'm gonna tell my boss I'm leaving...

The Dead Roses Series | Runny Yolks

I could have called this something like 'Dead Baby Chicks' or 'Aborted Poultry', considering how morbid this photo series has been in the past, but I thought I'd be more literal this time. For this edit, I removed all the contrast and some of the shadows and I flattened out the colors to give that saffron glow a more vintage feel. This photo does not provoke any thoughts in particular aside from a broken egg yolk bleeding into egg whites, but I do like how the surfaces of the petals are slightly visible because it adds an interesting texture to the image even though the actual state of the plant is still ambiguous.

The Dead Roses Series | Civil Twilight and Concealed Death

I love the serenity of this edit; I adjusted the color so it's mostly a flat wash of hues, but I kept the little glimmer in the corner to add some dimension.  The left half reminds me of that moment when the sun is just starting to light up the sky, while the other half looks like some sort of veil for a ghost or a dead body at a wake...so morbid, I know.

The Dead Roses Series | Amber and Ice

Another edit in the series, which is halfway published now. Here, I wanted to enhance the way the cold hue of the blue light seems to be swallowing up the warm glow of the amber light...or maybe the amber is slowly creeping into the blue? I can't tell. The icy color of the blue makes me think of something being drained of life while the amber is what's left before its glimmer is snuffed out.

The Dead Roses Series | Fissure

I decided to edit to enhance the split lighting here. 

The silhouette will be repeated because I love it so much.

The Dead Roses Series | Kissing in the Dark

I shot the series randomly when I was sitting in the kitchen while the sun was going down and the light shining through the adjacent window was starting to change dramatically enough to prompt me to grab my camera. I shot the same frame at different angles about 20 times and I selected the six strongest images for this photo series. This was the very first shot I took in hopes that I would be able to capture all of the orange and pinkish tones that are revealed during sunsets, but this one looks more peachy than anything and each subsequent shot had a different hue captured as well. I initially wanted to edit more light into the photo to make the dried roses more visible, but I have a love for deep shadows in photography. I thought the end result was somewhat haunting as the light seems to softly kiss the petals in the darkness making them look more alive than dead.