God Bless The USA

This is a rose from our yard. Deborah had put it in a vase and commented this morning; "How appropriate,
a blood red rose for the 4th of July."  She had gotten some water the petals, and said it would look really cool in the sun, holding drops on its velvet-like surface. That was all the cue I needed to grab a camera and take it outside.  She handed me the flower along with a small spray bottle.

I found a patch of sun that sort of spotlighted the rose and gave it a good spray with water. The top is pretty much side lighting, the bottom back lit.  I had to change over to manual exposure to get the detail and texture I wanted. Letting the camera pick the exposure gave me a bit too washed out on one, too dark on the other.

Hope you have a Happy 4th of July, and remember our freedom and our heritage. God Bless the USA.