And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
― Anais Nin
QUOTE – NATURE
Tag: flower
AUSTRALIAN PAINTED LADY (Vanessa kershawi)
Butterflies can’t see their wings. They can’t see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that as well.
Back to December 2010 for this series of images. I can picture the scene now. This butterfly was captured by my little Canon PowerShot A3000 IS (prior to buying my first Canon DSLR at the end of that same month). Who says a little inexpensive Point & Shoot camera isn’t as good as an expensive DSLR.
The location was near an archway right next to the entrance to The Herb Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. The colourful Lantana was in full bloom and a shaft of sunlight lit up the flowers and Australian Painted Lady butterfly.
KALANCHOE FEDTSCHENKOI ?? (I think)
KALANCHOE FEDTSCHENKOI ? – 18th January 2011
My memory is terrible and I can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember (and picture) the details of this Kalanchoe with the many buds and new flowers and exactly where it grew on the edge of a path in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.
This image was made a couple of weeks after buying my first Canon DSLR (which I still use to this day) and a Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lens (which I traded in as part of the Sony a6000 purchase in early 2015).
Note: the RBG to the South-east of Melbourne in the suburb of South Yarra is 55 hectares in size so being able to picture this plant in my head as I last saw it is amazing. But then I would say I’ve walked around the RBG something like 10,000+ times. I worked opposite the Herbarium for 16 1/2 years and walked around the gardens morning, noon and late afternoon every day except when there was heavy rain or storms in winter. I walked around the Gardens so many times I could shut my eyes and tell you in which location I was standing in Spring and Summer merely by the scent of the flowers and even, some of the leaves and barks.
I guess the landscaping has changed since I’ve lived in the western suburbs for several years now.
This morning I found another image of the Kalanchoe flowers from this same flower bed. This time it was made on the 31st of January 2013. It was made using my old 18-200mm general-purpose lens (which died from overuse….. I think) and with different camera settings and different time of day, so the tonal range of the background is much warmer.
In the image below the flower buds are fully opened and I find the bunch of flower heads a wee bit too busy for my taste.
I hope you’re enjoying a peek into my archives and a mix of photo subjects. I’m finding it easier to upload posts at random these days as much of my time is taken up with health matters.
WILD ARTICHOKE or ARTICHOKE THISTLE or CARDOON (Cynara cardunculus L.)
This is one of those random posts that pop up occasionally purely and simply because the images turned out well and exactly how I wanted them to appear.
Having a fence to sit the camera on was a bonus. (or should I say actually having a camera in my bag after an appointment was a bonus as I rarely take a camera out shopping or for medical appointments these days). When I lived on the southeast side of the city, I always took my 3 cameras out for a walk as I inevitably walked around, through or near the Royal Botanic Gardens or beautiful old residential gardens on that side of the city.
The Artichoke Thistle as it’s often called is a very stout perennial, up to 1.5 metres high with striking purple flowers.
I was walking down my steep road on the way home when the bright flowers caught my eye.
It is declared a noxious weed in Victoria (my state), Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The leaves are very large and I was pleased to be able to lean over the black metal fence separating the enormous grass-covered field and my housing estate and capture the lovely purple flowers.
BLUE BUTTERFLY BUSH (Clerodendrum)
The Blue Butterfly Bush is amazing when the bush is in full bloom, but very difficult to photograph as it’s hard to isolate just a few flowers. A photo of the whole bush leaves the flower colour a blur as there are too many blooms, but if you can get just a couple, perfect!
PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS
Made with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens……early 2011.
And finally, a real macro.
PRICKLY HIBISCUS CREEPER (Hibiscus surattensis L.)
For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be working on re-editing and/or filing my macro images from early 2011, so I hope to find some to share (again?) online.
There are also a few lovely shots made with the 50-250mm lens borrowed from my SIL for a month around that time. That was one…..very sharp…..lens.
The images in this post were made by the 18-200mm lens I bought about 3 months after buying my first Canon DSLR and 100mm macro lens in late December 2010. I found out very quickly that the Royal Botanic Gardens near where I lived (and worked for 16 years) was extremely windy and macro shots were better made on a windless (or near windless) day.
I did a lot of online research and reading and finally bought the 18-200mm lens as a great all-around replacement for the macro lens in less-than-perfect conditions. Note: that lens died in 2015 from sheer overwork.
Today I found 3 images of the Prickly Hibiscus Creeper (Hibiscus surattensis L.) to share.
(Note: I was actually looking for the beautiful Hibiscus Insularis images. One, in particular, was a random very lucky shot and very special. All lost in the ‘mists of time’, or as you computer nerds might say, lost in a computer crash).
I think it was arout 2012 that I first bought a Mac Pro computer and became an Apple convert (from Windows). Maybe I lost images then?
PROTEA
Proteas are native to southern Africa and belong to the same family of plants (Proteaceae) as Australia’s native Banksias, Grevilleas and Waratahs.
The series of images in this post are, like many of my photos, taken by sheer chance on a leisurely nature walk.
I was walking from the Meerkat exhibit to Melbourne Z00’s exit to catch a tram home after a day spent (mainly) in the Zoo’s large Aviary photographing birds when I passed a lovely bush full of freshly opened Protea flowers. I still had my 150-500mm lens over my shoulder and put it up to my eye and took some photos at a relatively short distance (for a long telephoto lens).
It wasn’t until I downloaded the day’s images onto my iMac’s 27″ screen that I realized they were well-lit and had come out very well indeed.
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Note for those new to my blog, I am extremely short-sighted and have been since the age of 7 when I was prescribed very thick glasses right from the start. I also have astigmatism (double-vison) which cannot be completely corrected via glasses, so my photography in retirement is often a hit-or-miss affair. But after 100,000 images in the first 7-year period of photography, I’ve learned to compensate or guess. From the age of 16 to 56 I wore contact lenses and in the final years of that period, bifocal contact lenses, which, believe it or not, really do work. I had relatively good vision at that time.
Just before I bought a camera and took up photography in 2010, my dry-eye and blepharitis condition had deteriorated so much that I had to return to very thick glasses permanently. Unfortunately, due to a further decline in eyesight more recently, (and an optic nerve haemorrhage in my left eye), I daresay my nature photography days are numbered. Luckily, I went to the Optician and then the Eye surgeon (for a second opinion), as soon as I noticed something was wrong.
A similar thing happened in early 2019 when I suddenly noticed more than the usual ‘floaters’ in my right eye. A prompt visit to the Optician and then an urgent referral to the Retinal Eye Surgeon for laser treatment to repair a torn Retina (which can also lead to blindness if left untreated) led to a complete recovery.
I urge anyone, young or old, to see an Optician or eye specialist as soon as they notice any change in their vision, large or small.
It may be something a little more serious than bleary eye-sight from lack of sleep or a night on the town affecting your vision.
Or it may be nothing at all 🙂
The following 2 images were made in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens (I think).
A Moment in Time 