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The Soul of the Rose



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© Sarah Allegra

I've got a new image for you guys, but I've also got some pretty terrible news. Calantha, my sweet, dog-daug...
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© Sarah Allegra

I've got a new image for you guys, but I've also got some pretty terrible news. Calantha, my sweet, dog-daughter, dog-soulmate had to be put to sleep on June 18th after a brief but intense battle with kidney failure. She has been by my side for 14 years, ever since she was 10 weeks old. She's been with me through just about every major adult life decision and change. I don't know how to exist without her. She had a very peaceful passing with an at-home euthanasia vet, but her quiet, gentle soul has left a permanent hole in my heart.

One thing that has helped keep me sane over the weeks since she's been gone has been working on this image of the beautiful Aly Darling. I didn't consciously realize it when I picked this image to edit, but it has some interesting tie-ins with Calantha which I expound upon in my blog. It's a quiet, gentle, graceful DreamWorld image inspired by the painting The Soul of the Rose by John William Waterhouse, my favorite painter, who was also a Pre-Raphealite. It's hard for me to feel happy or excited about much of anything right now, but I am very pleased with how this image turned out.

Going back to Calantha (as everything does right now), I'm saving up for a memorial tattoo of her. Any and all sales for the month of August will go towards my tattoo fund if you'd like to purchase anything and help out! My Red Bubble shop has prints in a wide variety of sizes and qualities, along with every day items such as mugs, scarves, shirts, phone cases, stickers... you name it: http:--www.redbubble.com-people-sarahallegra . My Etsy shop specializes in extremely high-quality, museum-level, limited-edition prints: https:--www.etsy.com-shop-SarahAllegraArtistry . Or, if you're just feeling generous, you can donate directly to the fund through PayPal: paypal.me-sarahallegra- . Thank you to everyone who would like to help with this! This is an important part of the healing process for me.

I've written a blog post about Calantha and her passing, along with more about this image, which you can read here: sarahallegra.wordpress.com-2019-07-29-roses-for-the-unicorn-dog-

*Personal Instagram: http:--instagram.com-artosthebear
* Professional Instagram: https:--www.instagram.com-sarahallegraartistry-
*Blog: http:--sarahallegra.wordpress.com
*Twitter: http:--twitter.com-sarahallegra
*Facebook: http:--www.facebook.com-artosthebear
*Red Bubble shop - a wide variety of items, including affordable prints: http:--www.redbubble.com-people-sarahallegra
*Etsy Shop - Limited-edition, fine art prints: https:--www.etsy.com-shop-SarahAllegraArtistry-
*Sarah Allegra Artistry: http:--www.sarahallegra.com


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3 Comments | Report
livioferrari PRO+
 
livioferrari August 25, 2019
Very nice.
amwaraxa
 
amwaraxa September 18, 2019
What a beautiful composition!
armandoermocida
 
armandoermocida May 07, 2021
💋💞🌹🚀
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Behind The Lens

Location

I shot this at a wall of gates which lead into some fancy houses near where I live (in a much less fancy house ;)). The gates often have ivy and roses climbing over them in a beautiful way and I wanted to capture it!

Time

This was around 1pm, which is my least favorite natural light time, but luckily there was a very large, dense tree shading the particular area I wanted to shoot in. Without that tree being there, the light would have been far too harsh and overhead.

Lighting

I used only natural light.

Equipment

I shot this with my Nikon D5100 and a 50 mm 1.8 lens. That was it! :)

Inspiration

There's a beautiful painting by John William Waterhouse also called The Soul of the Rose. I found it so lovely and to look at, I wanted to pay homage to it with a slightly similar photograph. My photo is not meant to be recreation of his painting, but I did take a lot of inspiration from it, and gave my photo the same title so the connection would be more overt.

Editing

I had to add in additional roses as by the time I was able to actually shoot this, the bush wasn't nearly as full as when I'd had the idea! I also added some bush to the upper left corner, which was quite bare straight out of camera and distractingly bright with only sky showing. I color toned it and added some subtle color layers I've created for myself.

In my camera bag

I usually carry my Nikon D810, my D5100, a 50 mm lens, a 27-70 lens, a telephoto lens, my flash, a remote shutter release, a flash bouncer, a foldable reflector and a variety of interesting things to shoot through like gels and translucent objects. My tripod almost always comes with me, but I carry it, it's not in my bag.

Feedback

If you don't have a nice big tree to shoot under, wait for better lighting, if possible! Spend some time looking through the works of artists whose work you love and see what inspires you. Maybe you can't create an exact replica of what they did (and maybe you don't want to!) but you might get a lot of ideas from them! If the inspiration is obvious (and especially if the other artist is living and active on social media), please be sure to credit them as helping to generate the concept for your piece; it's the polite thing to do. Artists are great at inspiring other artists, take advantage of that!

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