Early November, I unexpectedly stumbled upon the autumn roses in full bloom at Shinjuku Gyoen while out for a casual stroll. Such “unplanned” discoveries are always delightful. A dedicated tent stood at the rose garden entrance, where many volunteer guides led visitors around at their leisure, sharing their knowledge—it was quite a grand autumn rose event.
It wasn’t a perfectly clear autumn day, but at least the sky was blue. The white roses looked stunning.
In contrast, the deep, rich red roses.
The rose garden at Shinjuku Gyoen is not designed to easily close to the flowers, so the Leica DG 50-200mm telephoto lens I happened to bring that day—one of the finest in my collection for its exceptional rendering power—proved extremely useful.
Of course, the Leica DG 12-60mm delivers its usual reliable performance.
This tall flower is also a type of rose… I guess… not sure.
Looking back at the photos I took, it seems I was strongly drawn to the “white roses” that day. I was so delighted, flitting from flower to flower like a butterfly, or maybe a bee, or a horsefly, snapping away, that I didn’t even notice it at the time.
The article got a bit long, but I’ll go ahead and add one more white rose.
And so, this was the chapter where I unexpectedly enjoyed photographing autumn roses.
