Monomad: Does this really work? Red roses in black and white

I'm always willing to try photographing something new, even if it means trying something in a different style that I'm not all that used to. Well, I have photographed a fair number of beautiful flowers throughout the years, but I think this is the first time I have tried to do so with the idea of black and white as the main intention, and on a very overcast day today I did get out briefly into a relatively green (for Armenia) area. The colours were quite muted, the light was diffused from the clouds above, which produced quite a moody tone out of the roses. Dark shadows and sad aesthetics. I loved it! I tried to look around elsewhere at what else I could photograph, but in this park this was the only area that wasn't just green. I'm not sure how I feel about these though, something feels a bit off with them. I used the usual portrait lens of 85mm at F1.8, which is perfect for this sort of shot. But perhaps it's the familiarity with colour and removing it that makes me feel as if something is just not clicking with me. Perhaps others may see this in a different light (heh).

I'm using this image below as another example, you can really see the bokeh, the light to the left and the gradual changing of light into shadow, but the rose ones seem to be lacking this gradual change.

I really liked how the light works in this. The there's almost a texture to it, how each leaf seems to stand out on its own, but is clearly universal in the sense that it's attached to something much larger. Combined and part of something. There's a beautiful glow to it. Perhaps some of this was a lighting problem, having to point the camera up at the sky a bit to capture some of the light coming down, where in the petals of the roses the light had already mostly disappeared, leaving darker shadows in the crevices of the petals. And they look far more dead here, void of life, looking more damp and shrivelled up, which wasn't the case in person for the most part. Perhaps with some of this there is a loss of sharpness, where texture still looks evident, but less present. The petals of the roses don't really stand out as much, they look much smaller and less detailed. A little void of identity, but I guess that works in the more moody atmosphere, showing something that has less identity and almost withering.

Perhaps this is a lesson on how things can be subjective, showing how emotion changes an image, removing colour amplifying a certain feeling, even if that feeling doesn't really stand out at a first glance. Sort of why I'm here trying this out and asking anyone who comes across this: do you think it works out? What sort of feeling do you get from these? I'm sure most would prefer the second image which isn't even of the roses themselves, I sort of anticipate that.

One thing I noticed from turning these into black and white was the ways in which the bokeh shifted and became more shaped, less about the oval and circular bits of light from the aperture being very shallow and more something grouped. To be honest, I don't like that at all. I much prefer the circular and oval bokeh which gives the backgrounds a bit more of a kick to them, still giving depth but showing something for your eyes to glance over from foreground to background. I'm not sure what really happened here for that to happen, probably some weird editing thing I overlooked in the moment that blew things out a bit. But you know what I mean for sure, it's quite visible particularly in this one.

It isn't so visible in this last one, so perhaps it was more of a focus thing mixed with some editing. Less in the background for there to be more shape identity compared to the rest. This one I think is a bit more fun given the more tree like look to the rose, something definitely happened to this one that made it lose its general petal structure and caused it to sag a bit. Perhaps the incredibly heavy rains from the night before. Anyway, this was a fun little test. But do tell me if you have experience in something similar, and whether this is something you feel actually works! Me, I'm still not so sure I like them. But that might just be from my preferred style of photography coming out.