Faded beauty

I was tidying up in the garden today when I realised that some of the plants, although past their prime, were still very eye catching. Since most people do not bother to admire a flower except when it is perfect I decided to share the things that caught my attention this afternoon.

First the red Eucalyptus tree that I am hoping will grow to be a massive and brilliant specimen tree - but at present is only a couple of pretty branches that reach up about two metres. The fluffy flowers have about finished and the cups that hold the growing seed are left. They create a different sort of display which is attractive.

The stunning heads of blue from the many Agapanthus that were clumped together in the front garden have lost their petals and now are green bunches of seed pods. Most of these I have already cut off and put on the compost heap but a few have been left to provide a sculptural interest in the garden.

Replacing the Agapanthus and Eucalyptus blue and red are many heads of a very tall and severely dangerous (lots of hooked spikes along the sides of the long leaves) Bromiliad. The flowers that come from each of those bulbous tips are quite uninspiring but the huge heads that you see here stay looking like this for weeks and most people who come to visit stop and admire them. So even though the plant is past its prime it is still very attractive.

The pollen producing body of the male cycad has dried out and the seeds have been dispersed but this pendulous shape will stay like this for several weeks before breaking up and needs to be cut away. Again this is the end of the plant's usefulness and yet I will keep it where it is because I like it!

Finally the seed pods that hang from one of the Cassia trees. Actually the Cassia are a real pest - they pop up in the lawns everywhere and have to be mown down or pulled out or we would soon have a forest of them. But the seed pods have their own beauty - the flowers are pretty - like lots of yellow buttercups - but the seed pods with their fluffy soft seed coverings now adorn the trees and while they look attractive I can visualise all those seeds floating in the wind and landing all over the back and front gardens!

For those of you who are interested to know how I took these pictures and managed to get such a soft background, I used the 55-300mm lens at full zoom. I also set the Aperture to a small "F" stop to ensure a narrow depth of field. Since many of you prefer to use a compact camera - just use the zoom to get close and throw the background out of focus.
Notice how I managed to get something dark behind the subject? This helps to push the subject to the foreground and grab the viewers attention. A bright sky background or a house or fence even, would take that attention to the background. It takes a bit of practice but if you can see what is behind the subject before you take your shot you will get a much better photograph - sometimes moving a few inches to one side improves the way your shot will look.
AJ