Night flowering tree

After spending the entire day working in the kitchen, by evening I was feeling pretty warm so I took my cup of tea outside onto the veranda and sat down in the cool to enjoy it. The light was about gone from the sky but it wasn't completely dark and I was able to see that the tree the lorikeets fly into during the day was covered with white flowers. I was aware that the flowers only came out in the evening but I had not been outside to see it happening.

2 seconds      F/8     ISO 800

The tree was decorated with white flowers  from top to toe. There must be very little nectar in the flowers because they do not attract the fruit bats - fruit bats are night nectar and fruit eaters. And the honey eaters and lorikeets are not interested in flying around in the dark, so birds do not pollinate these flowers. So there must be insects that do that work.
It seems a shame that such attractive flowers should bloom only at night and fall to the ground before daylight.

                                                              3 seconds       F/8     ISO 800
I am surprised that these pictures came out as well as they did because it was too dark to focus - so focus was pure guesswork! AND there was a slight breeze blowing so the two and three seconds I took to take each photograph meant that the tree and flowers had to be completely still - or completely blurred!
My last image shows that some of the flowers have fallen off already - they really are short lived.

                                                                   3 seconds       F/8     ISO 800
I should look up and find out what this tree is. The birds brought it into my garden and I transplanted it in the grove of trees just across from the veranda. Until now I had no need to know its name!
Now that I have had my little break I had better get myself back into the kitchen and tidy up!
AJ

Night works

My son is still showing off this area of Queensland to his girlfriend and when he offered to take me along with him when he took her up a nearby hill to see the lights of the Gold Coast I immediately said "yes", Not to worry, his plan was not to go "parking"! He really did want to show off the pretty vista! So with the entire family aboard his 4x4 and with every member carrying a camera of one kind or another and two tripods as well, we drove about five kilometres up "Monaro Drive". What a steep road! I have driven past this road so many times but have never driven up it - now I know not to!

f3.5  3 sec  ISO 200   18mm

This first image is of Surfers Paradise. I used two focal lengths since I was using the 18-55mm lens. To take the photos I put the camera into Live View which flips the mirror up - of course I was one of the two people using a tripod!

f/5.6 3sec ISO 200 55mm

And this second picture is using the other end of the lens. The very tall highrise building is right in the centre of Surfers Paradise and is known as the Q1 and is the tallest residential tower in the southern hemisphere.
I love having the opportunity to try something different with my camera!
Do click on each of the pictures if you would like to see them larger.
AJ