Sun rays shining through spider web

Sun rays shining through spider web

Sun and spider web

Here is a rather abstract photo of the sun shining it's rays through a Garden Orb Spider's web. The strong back lighting produces excellent outlines on the spider web, and the curve of the web draws the eye between the sun and the top right corner of the image (not that there's anything there!).

Related Posts:
Spider web again
Spider!
The Web

P.S. You might want to check out a new blog I have been helping to design: http://onepoint5.blogspot.com
This blog will be an ongoing chronicle of one family's adventures on their 1.5 acre block of land in town.

Silverbeet leaf with water droplets

Silverbeet leaf with water droplets

Silverbeet leaf with water droplets

It's great what sort of photos you can get just after some rain. This photo of a silverbeet (spinach) leaf was taken in the early morning, when the sun was just beginning to cast it's light on the world.

Sunset vista

Sun setting in the outback

Sunset vista

This is a nice landscape shot of the sun setting in an Australian outback scene. The clouds curve upwards to make a majestic image, and the treeline frames the lower section of the sky nicely.

Photos featuring the sun seem to fit into a category of their own, and I have certainly taken a lot of them! Some of my previous posts related to this topic include:

Morning Sun
Sunset
Sunshine Breaks & Solar Flare
Sun shining through leaves

Small feet in pile of leaves

Small feet in a pile of leaves

Small feet in pile of leaves

Going on the recent theme of "feet", I took a photo of two small children sitting in a pile of autumn leaves and zoomed in on their feet to get this photo. Again, I have applied a soft focus filter to this photo in order to add focus to the feet in the middle of the image.

Related Posts:
Footprints in the Sand
Following in his footsteps...

Footprints in the sand...

Footprints in the sand

Footprints in the sand
Wave erasing footprints

Here's another "sand" photo for you. This one illustrates a set of footprints leading diagonally away from an upcoming wave. This picture seems to give the impression of impending motion, as if the wave is just about to rush up and envelop the footprints on the sea shore.

Related Posts:
Following in his footsteps...
Sunrise at the beach
Sea shell in sand
Wave breaking over rocks
Crab on the sand

Following in his footsteps...

Paw-prints in the sand

Here is an interesting "uncluttered" photo of two dog paw-prints in the sand. Somehow photos in the sand always seem to bring a different perspective into an image. Maybe it's the contrast of similar matter in the image, making the whole picture something like an embossed image. The prints are somewhat the wrong way around for "following in footsteps" though - the larger print is behind the smaller one!

Another Hairy Caterpillar [Processionary Caterpillar] Photo

Processionary Caterpillar

Here is another photo of the hairy "Processionary Caterpillar" we have been observing (see my previous post Caterpillar Migration). We have been tracking these caterpillars (caterpillers?) for the past few days, and have seen them processing many times now. They seem to be moving back and forth between the middle of our drive way (a very inconvenient position for us!), and a few camphor-laurel trees we have about. They appear to be able to move very quickly when they want to! Hopefully they settle down soon to pupate, otherwise someone will run over them sooner or later!

This blog's first millennium!

Latest News: Early this-morning the 1,000th visitor accessed this blog! Thank you to all the people who have visited this blog - you help to support it!

Caterpillar migration!

This is amazing! Just this morning we found a ball of about 30 hairy caterpillars sitting in a pile at the top end of our 25m driveway. When we came out later, the caterpillars had formed a line and were "migrating" in file down the driveway! Each one of them was following straight behind the one in front, and all together they made a single line of 29 caterpillars snaking down the driveway. Whenever there was a stick or rock in the way, the whole line would curve around it, each creature exactly following it's leader.

When we got out a tape measure, the entire length of the caterpillar-parade turned out to be a little over 4ft., about 130 cm. This is a sight I have certainly not seen before, nor do I expect to see it again. If anyone has any idea what type of caterpillar this is, maybe you could leave a comment with your idea. :-)

Update:
I have now identified the caterpillar: It is called the "Processionary Caterpillar", "Ochrogaster lunifer" in Latin, and is renowned for this behaviour of "processions".
More Information about the Processionary Caterpillar

Review of Picasa

This post is a break from my regular method of publishing images. I would like to take the time to review Picasa, the photo manager and editor from Google, which is included as part of the Google Pack.

I have been using Picasa to manage my pictures for over a year now, and have found it very satisfactory. Importing photos is a breeze - all you have to do is plug in your camera, select "Import", and click "Import All" after selecting your device. Once photos are imported, Picasa indexes all the photos in the folders you select on the computer, and lets you view them as a timeline, slideshow, or list view.

Search facilities are excellent, providing you add keywords to your images. With my collection of over 3000 photos a search takes less than a second!

For each photo, there are basic editing tools, with a useful backup of the original photo in case you wish to restore the changes you made.

There are also lot's of extras, including support for geo-tagging, and uploading photos to a free 1GB Picasa Web Album!

Overall, I would recommend Picasa to anybody with more than about 10 photos to manage. It is an excellent tool, and used properly can keep a reasonable sized image collection under control.

Drought

Cracked earth

A monochrome photo of cracked soil. This sort of earth is common in rural Australia, especially during the current period of drought in Queensland.

Strange Blob!

Lump of coral?

Here is a "strange blob" that was found on the sea shore. Is it coral, or some strange variety of seaweed? Maybe some web user out there knows - feel free to leave a comment with any ideas you have!

New life!

New shoots



Sun shining through leaves

To celebrate Easter, I have this post illustrating "new life". (Top): Quite a good close-up of some new shoots springing from the soil. (Above): A photo of the sun shining through some new leaves. Notice the ant at the top left corner!

For more on the origins of Easter, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

Mushroom

Large Mushroom

Mushroom

This mushroom has quite a long stem to go with it's large head. Notice the small ring about 1/3 of the way down the stem. This photo was taken near Sydney, NSW.

Soft-focus flower

Pink flower with soft-focus

Flower with soft edges

This is a beautiful picture of a many-petaled flower. A soft-focus filter has been applied to create the blur effect at the edges

Kangaroo caught mid-air!

Kangaroo in air during jump

Kangaroo in mid-air

The kangaroo in this photo has been caught mid-jump while it was still in the air! The posture of the kangaroo is about the same as the one on the tail of Qantas planes.