Life in the garden

I was lucky enough to be given some plants today so that made me spend a bit of time in my garden. Once the plants (gerberas) were planted and mulch spread around them to make them feel comfortable, I dashed inside to grab the camera. The camera was not for these little new plants but for some naughty creatures that were munching their way along the big fleshy leaves of a spider lily plant.

It is possible to see the devastation these long creepy caterpillars are creating. This is a long leaf and only a few of the caterpillars are shown. There are lots of leaves and lots of caterpillars. Guess who will be using a spray can of insecticide tomorrow! I couldn't do it today because I wanted a photograph and I did try to encourage a nearby butcher bird to come down and help himself but he preferred the grasshoppers! The sprays I use are bird and lizard friendly. I am very reluctant to spray insects, preferring instead to let the natural predators do the work - but when it comes to such an act of vandalism as this . . .  action has to be taken! There are too many of them to go around squashing them!
There are many beautiful things in the garden at the moment. It is a real pleasure to be out there pulling up weeds and snipping off dead heads!

This is a Gloxinia and was bought in a moment of weakness last year. I bought two of them and after giving us a few weeks of colour they died back. I thought I had seen the end of them but being lazy did not dig them up and put something else in their place - just as well because they have been reborn! The strange thing is that this one, the first to flower, has reversed its colours. Last year it was purple and white but the throat was white and the edges of the petals were white! I wait with impatience to see if the red gloxinia has altered too!
Another of the beautiful flowers in my front garden is this daylily.

I think I might have eight different coloured daylilies and they are all "stunning". The individual flowers look fantastic for only one day - hence their name - and in the morning are completely withered and hang limply from their stem. Fortunately each stem has several flower buds so there is a reasonable flowering time. Over the years my plants have multiplied and I have spread clumps all through the garden beds so there are lots of flowers through November and into December. I love 'em!
Before I stop!
When Colin was putting the clippings through the mulcher (all my garden clippings go back onto the garden!) he found this little fellow.

This spider is very small - maybe one centimeter leg tip to leg tip. It looked a little like a tiny crab!
AJ

Our special bird is back

A lot has happened this weekend _ I have been out with the camera once again, but all that has paled into the background with the joyful arrival of our very special bird this morning.

f /9  1/13  ISO800

Before we went off on our four wheel drive trip Twisty was an intermittent visitor but when we came back home she had not returned with the other birds.
It took two full days of putting out food before the lorikeets rediscovered we were really "back". on the first morning we had two birds come and feed and the next day there were a couple more but on day three the message was out and the crowd returned! But not Twisty.
Neither Colin nor I mentioned this for a while but eventually we sadly mentioned that since so many years had gone by that just maybe we had seen the last of our feathered friend.
This morning, 24 days after our return, as I was pouring out the seeds into the dish, a lorikeet almost flew into me and sat on the rail beside me. I just assumed that the bird had become so accustomed to my ritual that it was no longer fearful of me. Then Colin stepped outside carrying his breakfast cereal to put on the table and a lorikeet flew over to him and landed on his arm. There was no mistaking the message! "I'm back!" It was our favoured bird. (And "favourite"!)
Straight away Colin rushed inside and found the tiny dish we use for Twisty and put in some dry raw sugar. Talk about happiness! If a lorikeet could only purr this bird was purring!
Of course the camera came out (as it always does!) but the head bobbing in and out of the dish at breakneck speed meant that I had to take several shots to get one! Hurray for digital cameras!
After clearing the table after our breakfast I took my camera to the corner of the veranda where I have several plants plus a new one I picked up on Sunday at a flower show. It was a Rose Show and I bought a Hydrangea! A brilliant deep pink one, so I wanted to take a shot of the flowers, the sun had peeped out and they looked so lovely. I bent down to pull the plant forward so that the background was only greenery, not other flowers, and as I did so three other lorikeets flew into the plants only inches away from me and perched there watching what I was doing. The birds have never behaved like this before, they have even waited until I filled their feed dish before flying down. I raised the camera to record this unusual moment and Twisty Beak squawked in jealousy and flew at the other brave birds and chased them away! So I went back to the table and took another of Twisty! How vain! Now I know Twisty is a female!

f/9  1/100 ISO800

Soon after taking this shot there was a lorikeet alarm squawk and every lorikeet in the trees, the ground below the feed dish and Twisty on the table all took flight simultaneously and disappeared into the distance.
Now it is raining. The sun has gone and it is pouring down.
AJ

Color to dazzle you

Each morning I watch the birds feeding while I also have my breakfast. Today I had my camera handy because I was waiting for some other bird to get closer. Here are a few seconds of the Lorikeets.

When I first uploaded the video it did not include the loud noises that you should be able to hear now. If you turn your sound up loud (not recommended!) that is how loud they really are.
AJ

A day out with Gecko

Ideally I would like to be able to write a blog every day - but to do that I would have to be on holiday every day (I would love that!) Today I managed to get a half day holiday. A young friend invited me to check out the work she and her work mates were doing at Schuster Park at their open-day. The rain had held off and the sun was being kind so the camera was tucked into my shoulder bag for what I hoped would be a day of photography. It was!

f5.6     1/160    ISO 125   28mm

The park is partly cleared for family recreation with lawns, a children's playground, barbecues and shaded seating but the majority of the land is covered (more like smothered) with a tangle of trees, vines and many introduced garden plants that have washed over during high tides and taken root. It is this area that Gecko -  Gold Coast & Hinterland Environment Council - are attempting to clear. Not remove trees but to remove the stuff that they feel should not be there. The introduced and non native plants. In areas that have been cleared more trees have been planted - this time ones that are native to the area.
Colin and I joined a group as they walked through the park and I struck up a conversation with a sprightly "young" man who told me he was having his 86th birthday tomorrow! I asked him if he had grown up in the area and he surprised me by telling me he was a "Schuster" and this used to be his land!

F5.6  1/200  ISO 125  48mm

He was delighted with what Gecko was doing and showed enormous interest in their activities. My photo of him is not sharp, I dashed ahead and spun around to take it but everyone was moving and I obviously was still moving too! The picture is cropped from a larger group shot.

f/5.6  1/200  ISO 125  24mm

Here the group has stopped to be shown some of the recent work by the members of Gecko, picking up rubbish that had invaded the park and out of sight of the camera an area where many small trees had been planted. I am afraid I did not hear what the totem was in aid of.
Leaving the group who all returned to the mown area of the park for lunch, Colin and I wandered further into the "scrub" - but staying on the main track, with the 30 degree heat and high humidity of the day the snakes would have been quite active. We were not out to invite trouble!
Here is a shot of an area that has not been cleared of introduced plants and you can see just how much work this group has ahead of them!

f/5.6   1/100  ISO250  38mm

All that green is a mat of yellow daisy like plants.
As well as taking general shots of the trees and the park I did have some fun with the camera. There were no birds or animals willing to be near me for their portrait and the many different butterflies refused to stop anywhere near me so I had to rely on leaves and grasses for my close shots. Here is one of them. I found that I needed to use manual focus because, for some reason, holding down the shutter half way did not hold the focus when I moved the camera to put my subject to the side.

f/8   1/100  ISO 125  55mm

These grasses are very common but when isolated like this look very striking. The finches love the half ripe seeds on them. But there were no finches in this bit of scrub. Using the longest focal length possible with this lens (18-55) allows the background to be soft focus while the subject is sharp. A second less dramatic grass on the left balances the picture.
It was an interesting visit to what was an unknown area (only a few kilometres from home) - and I came home with a swag of interesting shots!
AJ

After reading this story, Carly wrote to me on Facebook with some more information. I asked her and was given permission to add it to the blog.
"...the Schuster was Reg Schuster...son of John Schuster who farmed the area...The kids used to get to school by flying fox which we all thought was really quite wonderful!!!Each year the Schusters have a get together one new years day in the park. The most intereasting thing is that the part which we are working on was not ever owed by the schusters but the Andrews, which sadly there are only 3 remaining, and all unmarried women. John Schuster sold the property in 1954 to the Shmits( or Smiths) to move to Burleigh Heads"

Waiting for sunshine

Since arriving home from our trip into Central Australia the sun has been hiding behind rain clouds. The temperatures are lower than usual but still warm enough for the reptiles to be out and about. We have not had a water dragon so close to the house before so when our dogs showed great interest in what was over the fence in the swimming pool area I looked.

When I saw a water dragon on the bricks at the edge of the pool I grabbed the camera and put the 300mm lens on. These lizards are rather timid and will not let us get close - mind you they will not take any notice of Colin when he sails past on his ride-on lawn mower! The machine does not faze them! Its just people walking that sends them into hiding!
The first shot was taken from the first floor veranda looking down, I guess the lizard would be 30 metres away.
This second shot was taken from half way down the outside steps.

The dog had rushed down ahead of me and thanks to the disturbance the lizard had disappeared into the shrubs. I waited and he (or she!) reappeared but again was a fair distance away, this time further round the pool.
(Click on the pictures to see them larger and then hit the "back" button to return to the blog.)
Its fun when the wildlife comes calling!
AJ

Woomera Sunsets

I have spent quite some time sorting though my photos and converting them from RAW to jpegs and adjusting the lighting on a few of them. Not one has needed any colour adjustment which is pleasing. I am still “raving” about my super Nikon D90! So far it hasn't let me down.

You may remember that I showed only one of the sunset shots that I took at Woomera. That night there were no obstructions to spoil a magnificent sky.

I actually took twelve shots and every one of those is a “keeper” but I am showing you a small selection to show how the sky changed during the 15 minutes I was taking photographs.

f/5  1/1600 ISO 500  32mm

The very first shot is from just outside the fence of the caravan park and you can see the road and the power lines that I had to walk past to get my unobstructed view of the majesty of the evening.

f/18  1/640  ISO 500  55mm

f/7.1  1/640   ISO 500   33mm 

f/5.3  1/400  ISo 500  48mm

f/5.6  1/400 ISO 500  55mm

AJ

Shapes and form

I have been spending a little time tidying up the photos that were taken on my recent trip to Coober Pedy and places in-between and today was working on some taken in and around Broken Hill. Broken Hill is in New South Wales and rushed into life when a boundary rider discovered that a broken hill was made up of the ore that contains silver. That broken hill has been mined into oblivion but it gave its name to the town that grew because of the minerals it contained.

Having seen a video made by a friend of a rather special garden that had been created in the desert that is where our travels took us. Within this "Living Desert" area is a hill on which stand some huge carved rocks. There is quite a story behind the symposium of the carvings but I was more interested in the way these rocky shapes fitted into the landscape than in why and how they came to be here!

When I take my photos I am not merely taking a record of what I see, I try to create an image that I feel is balanced and tells some sort of "story".
Composition is not always with the memory of the photographic "rules" and yet my main subject does seem to fall in that golden rule of thirds.

f/18 1/80 ISO 800   24mm

When these photos were taken it was starting to rain - in fact a few of my shot have a rain drop blurring the picture - so determined was I to get what I wanted I was prepared to defy the elements. Just as well really because the next day we could not return to the sculptures because the road was closed - the rain had made the track impassible.

f/7.1  1/125  ISO 800  35mm

This second shot is not of a sculpture but of some of the rocks that had been delivered when the symposium was taking place. They may have been arranged or they may have been dropped from a tip truck and landed in the fashion - but I found the stones very ornamental and the light and shadow (even though there was no sun and therefore no shadows) very artistic. I loved the colour of the rocks and the way they contrasted so acutely with the landscape beyond.
My next sculpture also fits into the golden rule. The shot of the random rocks were more centred but still make a balance picture - maybe it is the leaning rock on the left side that has an anchoring effect.

f/10  1/125  ISO 800  26mm

This photo has the weight on the right side. I tend to use the "lean" of the main subject to direct me where to position it in the picture. If I had this sculpture positioned on the left of the picture it would look as if it was trying to get out of the frame.
Wanting to experiment a little I crouched down for the next shot.

f/10   1/125   ISO 800  48mm

The desert does not look like a desert at all and I wanted to use some of this unusual growth and colour and throw the shapes into the background without removing them. The plants that are around the sculptures are natives of this area but they have been deliberately planted here to showcase the native plants of the Broken Hill area. You will notice with the above picture that although the focus is on the plants that thought has been given to the placement of the sculptures behind. The shot would look rather bland if those stone pillars were centred.
Another thing you will notice is that the ISO is very high for these photographs. It is only with Photoshop tweaking that they are as bright as they are! It was really dark when we were up on this hill and I needed to compensate for that dullness so that I was able to get a wide depth of field for some of my shots. Without the high ISO none of that desert in the background would have been visible in the first three shots because with a low ISO my aperture would have been so open that only part of the sculpture would have been in focus.
I hope you find my ramblings of interest.
AJ