Another garden

I really enjoy wandering around Botanic Gardens and when a couple of friend suggest I meet them at the Gold Coast Botanic Gardens I jumped at the chance - and of course made sure that my camera batteries were charged and that I had a few lenses to play with!
These gardens are not very old - they have only been converted from parkland to Botanic Gardens in the last five years - but I really enjoyed my time exploring.

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The first image I am sharing is of a very common bird found in gardens everywhere in Australia. It is known by its common name "Mickey Minah". Not only do they enjoy nectar - here taken from a grevillea - but they eat all sorts of things and can often be found at picnic spots waiting for handouts to be tossed to them.

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The cormorant is not an uncommon bird either - this one is found all over the world. The Chinese have managed to train cormorants to fish for them in a rather novel way. They do not have a great deal of oil on their feathers so they do get water-logged and it is not uncommon to find them on the banks of waterways with their wings held out from their bodies to dry! This fellow was doing his brush and comb job before hanging himself out to dry.

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A black duck was trying to snatch forty winks in the sun when three camera wielding females noticed him! First the eye opened to see how close the danger was and then, since we wouldn't go away, he came awake and made plans for further action.

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He really had been curled up and comfortable, his beak had been tucked under all those glossy outer feathers and snuggled into the down!

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I couldn't resist including at least one flower! This one looks to be a member of the Tibouchina family.

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In a lovely shady patch under some Malaleuca trees (paper bark trees) at the edge of the lake were several water dragons of various sizes. It was a challenge to take this in an acceptable (to me) way because I do not like taking animals from above and since I was standing on an elevated timber walkway I had to get down really low and poke my lens through the railings and shoot from a slight distance. I like to have my creatures taken at "their eye level". There were eels and turtles in that same patch with the lizards but I shall have to return to that garden to take a few more shots!
Just a reminder - to see any pictures in my blog larger, click on the picture, then click on the "back button" to return to see other pictures.
AJ

Alpine Gardens

Before moving on to other places and other topics I shall give one more story of one of our visits in the Blue Mountains. I had set my heart on returning to the Mount Tomar Botanic Gardens - when Colin and I were last in the Blue Mountains we had called in there and arrived only half an hour before the gates were shut and we were so interested in what we saw there that we planned to return should we ever return to the Mountain. Adam's wedding gave us that chance.

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It is always tempting, when visiting gardens, to take lots of close up pictures of individual plants! Of course I had to allow myself to be tempted! But there were huge displays of colour that required a wider look - like this stand of red hot pokers. I should look up their botanic name because there are some yellow ones too! I like the common name though! It reminds me of my childhood in the UK. These red hot pokers would grow in the home gardens and I am convinced they are responsible for my interest in gardening today!

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So you spotted the white cockatoo! All through the garden were tin sculptures - they are designed as a "look and find" thing for children to do when in the gardens. There are lots of tin "ants" the size of a Shetland pony scattered through the gardens too!
There was a sign to a "Jungle walk" so Colin and I left the manicured lawns and designer garden beds and ventured into this patch of totally unspoiled rain-forest bought and donated to the gardens by Lady Fairfax who was determined not to let it be cleared for agriculture. It was dark so photography was quite a challenge (but not for Colin's point and shoot Olympus as it turned out!) Not having taken a tripod with me I had to either lean against the trunk of an obliging tree or else find some other stable prop to prevent me from shaking!
This photo of the vines was thanks to a tree beside the path.

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A ring of trees could only be seen as a ring by placing Colin in the centre! These are sassafras trees and apparently when the main tree is logged or burned in a bush fire new growth starts from the roots around the original trunk, not replacing the trunk but circling it. To take this picture I leaned on the signboard that gave me that information!

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I did try taking pictures using the flash on the camera but that did not work at all. The nearest trees and leaves would be illuminated and the background would all be totally dark and colourless. The information under the photos tells of a slow shutter speed - which is why it was necessary to use a prop to keep the camera still so that I would not have motion blur.
Back out in the sunshine I gave way to my urge to take a few close ups.

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Some flowers just shout out to have their photo taken!

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Under many of the trees were tall brown stalks with lighter brown flower buds held erect on the tops, they looked so comical and I did take a few pictures of them, but when I found a little group of open flowers they gave me a greater pleasure, the pink of their petals was so striking against the drab brown of the leaf litter.
I hope you have enjoyed my trip to the Blue Mountains. It gave me such pleasure with the camera both in bright sunlight and in the shade - and I have enjoyed showing you a few of the pictures I came home with!
AJ

Green gardens

Being back in the land of the mundane - housework and grocery shopping - I look back on one of the walks that Colin and I took last weekend when we were in the higher altitudes of the Blue Mountains. Our motel was in walking distance from some Rhododendron gardens so we donned our jackets and walking shoes and tramped our way to investigate them.

 

Of course the bushes are not flowering at this time of year, the brochures told us of a Rhododendron Festival in November, but we were not to be put off by this, we just felt like taking a walk and having a look! Perhaps we shall visit one November to see the place at its best but this isn't all that likely.

 There were several walkways among the trees and shrubs, this row of bushes look to be azalea so there will be colour at other times of the year as well as November. Many of the trees look to be deciduous so they will create an autumn show of coloured leaves in May and June.

A shelter with seating provided me with interesting framing for the view of the gardens.

Walking back to the motel after our short walk I spotted a magnolia tree in flower and couldn't resist getting a little bit of colour other than green! The tree was in a private garden and overhanging the edge of the road so I did not trespass to get my picture! Since this magnolia is so obviously healthy it surprised me that there were not more varieties of magnolia in other gardens.
AJ

Beauty in the bush

Today I am sharing a few of the pictures I took while wandering around in the Blue Mountains. Sometimes it is good to stop looking at the wider vista and take note of what is close at hand. It is surprising just how many things you could miss when gazing out across the wondrous open spaces offered by such places as the Blue Mountains!

This area of the world gets both wet and cold and as a result the trees are covered with lichen, both the flat pale green variety and the spidery tangle of strands of what is affectionately called “Old Man's Whiskers” (But I have a tropical plant that has that same name and it drapes down in lush long tangles of soft strands)

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Most of the time of our three night stop-over in the mountains the weather was dull and damp but even that gave me a different look at how the mountains are. The spectacular “wow” scenes are in the brilliant sunrises and sunsets but there was no colour for us this trip. However the misty rain gave a rather special look to the jagged tree covered mountains.

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The thousands of trees smothering the mountains exude eucalyptus oil the warm air and this is what gives the distant hills a blue look – and that is how these mountains were given this collective name “Blue Mountains”

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One of the places we visited (we chose only to go to places we had not visited on previous occasions) was Anvil Rock. At the foot of this mighty rock – which was not anvil shaped but did have a big iron anvil set in concrete on the very top – was a fabulous weather worn stone. It was quite large so I guess it was a rock not a stone! I would have loved to have clambered around the other side for a different perspective – but the steep slope stopped me! I did not fancy slipping down the thousand of more feet if I lost my footing!

Another of the interesting places we visited was called a wind eroded cave and with such an unpretentious name, very few people visited it. But it was wonderful!

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I must have taken a dozen photos and Colin the same. Its a good job we no longer have to pay to have our photos developed! The cave is really just the face of a huge rocky outcrop that has been weathered into a concave shape so is not really a cave. The face is also carved with millions of mini “caves” of different sizes giving every angle a different look.

We have now left the Blue Mountains and are on our way home. No photos were taken during our travels today, we were too busy enjoying the drive – the GPS took us on a route we would not have chosen if we had to rely on a printed atlas! We drove over 30+km of gravel road. Our car will need a good wash when we get home!

AJ

The Wedding

Well the wedding is over and Colin and I snuck away from the very noisy party that is still echoing through the mountain tops. We were so hungry that we had to come back to our motel room to have something to eat! Neither of us eat oysters nor drink wine so we were sort of on the outer with the rest of the crowd!
The wedding was at Hargraves lookout just out of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. I raved about the place yesterday having caught it in the sunlight.

Just to prove how terrific it looks on a good day I am including a shot from yesterday because today was cold and damp and the sky, very dark.

So all that practicing I did with the camera was to no avail - except that I have some bright photos to include with the wedding ones! I had to do another quick rehearsal before the actual wedding and snapped away at some of the guests. by the time Jess arrived (Adam was there before any of us) I was confident of getting my shots. Here are a couple of them I will share tonight. I think I was the only one who raced around the crowd to get the couple "walking down the Aisle".

You can see the gloomy clouds behind everyone. It was really cold too and Jess was eager to get into the warmth of the car! I think it was down to 9 degrees and there was a breeze too.

Before they reached the car I called Jess and Adam to come back and pose with the cliffs behind them. The wedding was with the valley behind them so there is no background at all other than the railings of the lookout and very distant dark hills where as on this side where they walked to the car the scenery is lovely.
I may even cheat and put them and the railing in front of that sunny picture, the cliffs look so clear! What do you think? This is the reason they chose this location, after all.
One great thing about the grey lighting - there are no hard shadows like were in the shots I took in the evening sun yesterday. So I managed to have an assistant with a reflector after all! The clouds were my reflectors!
(Click on any picture to see it larger then hit the return arrow to return to this blog)
AJ

Up in the hills

I think that New South Wales must have the most roadworks happening in the world! It took an incredible long time to get from Port Macquarie to Blackheath thanks to the low speed limits imposed on works areas! Of course we shall all benefit once those roads are complete but in the mean time . . .  Grumble Grumble!
Anyway, we left all the clouds behind us and once we had booked into our clean and comfortable motel for our three night stay we hopped into the car to check out one of the dozens of look-outs. Since we are here to attend a wedding at Five in the evening at one of the lookouts I wanted to see what the light was like and what settings I was to use to get bright clear photos.
 Good ol' Colin posed for me (one way to keep my collection of family photos going!) and three attempts later I found what I needed to get the main subject in focus and the view visible too. The strong and low sun gave really heavy shadows but thanks to the "Shadows/Highlights" feature in Photoshop applied to Colin only, this is what I have achieved.

 

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I just roughly selected around Colin and Copied and Pasted then applied the Shadows/Highlights and used Reveal all mask to remove any brightening from around him. There is still shadow on the face but it looks natural - I don't like to remove all shadow. I guess if I was a pro photographer I would have an assistant with a reflector travelling with me! I am not sure how an assistant would stand outside that railing and be out of shot, though, there is a sheer drop from the fence!
AJ

First day on the road.

Colin and I have left home yet again and this time are on our way to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Our first stop is Port Macquarie where we have tucked ourselves into a cabin in a big caravan park. What a wonderful location this is! We are only the second cabin back from the walkway along the estuary. When we drove in and parked beside the cabin we noticed all the big painted rocks near by but got quite a surprise when we walked over to them.

My first picture shows what we saw to start with – a grassy bank with a row of big illustrated rocks along the top.

Walking up the embankment we found ourselves on a well used walking/ running/ cycling track along which families and fitness fanatics were travelling in both directions.

All the rocks look as though they have been given a fresh coat of paint and all are really neatly decorated. Here are a couple of examples.

 

I wonder if the painting was done by Port Macquarie individuals or maybe the individuals – holiday makers or residents, submitted a design and paid a fee to some foreshore committee and the artwork undertaken by artists (that, to me, looks to be the case)

We spend about six hours driving today but we always make a point of stopping every two hours for a break. We take a big thermos flask of hot water and make ourselves a cup of tea but come three o clock we pulled into a service station and as well as filling the car, we bought a frothy coffee! It was very welcome and really “hit the spot”!

AJ

Playing with the camera

I enjoy writing this blog and when "work" gets in the way and I am too exhausted to write in an evening I start feeling as though I have let the blog down! Tonight the family has departed and the excitement that has gripped the place has relaxed and once again I can sit quietly at the computer and put up a few pictures.
No matter how busy I get I still manage to see things that insist on being the subject of a photograph. Like this fellow who posed so beautifully in the tree opposite the veranda.

 

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White cockatoos have become quite numerous and in the mornings a flock of close on fifty of them fly over screeching loudly, at around five thirty. (It is quite bright at that time these summer mornings) They have destroyed every last one of our lemons long before they are even yellow so when they settle in the back yard I no longer chase them away - there is nothing edible left worth getting excited about! This year I will have to buy lemons and passion-fruit. When Colin announced that he was going to build me a vegetable garden I couldn't help but laugh. I have gone to great lengths to attract birds and animals to the garden so it would be a garden for the wildlife! What the wildlife doesn't eat the fruit flies and the grubs will!
At last I have put the Macro/wide lens converter onto my camera and had a little play with it. I really can get up nice and close to plants now - but of course this is not a true macro and I am still limited by the f/3.5 of the 18-55mm lens it screws onto. Here are a couple of shots I have taken with this extension lens.

 

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So I can get in much closer to the subject and far from being a handicap, the aperture setting allows more of the curve of petals to be in focus. I am also delighted that the lens is as sharp as it is considering it is two extra pieces of glass in front of the 18-55mm lens, also no distortion.

 

f/9 1/160 55mm+macro lens ISO 640

I don't know if you have ever looked closely at the flowers of a crepe myrtle, it looks like a mass of fluffy petals making up a fairly large head of flowers. Click on this picture and see just one of those fluffy petals! This is a lens I can enjoy using!
AJ