Submission - Growing up in the Rainforest

"Submission"
Leaves sprouting from tree stump in the rainforest

"Submission" is the title I chose for this photo in a recent photography competition. I don't know exactly why, but it seems to fit the photo somehow. Perhaps it's the modest curve of the leaves, which give it a rather frail and gentle air. This is another one of my Goomburra shots, taken while walking to the Cascades.

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Lazy Rock! - Wordless Wednesday

Lazy Looking Rock!
Rock with shadows in Sunlight
Wordless Wednesday

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Curly Vine Tendril - Wordless Wednesday

Curly Green Vine Tendril
Wordless Wednesday

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Green Grass - Wordless Wednesday

Green Grass
Wordless Wednesday

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Dragonfly Insect - Wordless Wednesday

Dragonfly-like Insect clinging to a Eucalyptus leaf
Wordless Wednesday

Lacewing (nymphes myrmeleonides)

This Wordless Wednesday photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Easter Sunday

Life
Sun shining through green tree leaves
Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter Sunday. Easter, also called Pascha, is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.. Many non-religious cultural elements have become part of the holiday, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.

Easter Eggs are a popular traditional food eaten on Easter Sunday. The egg is a symbol of the Resurrection: while being dormant it contains a new life sealed within it.

Easter is termed a moveable feast because it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year, following the cycle of the moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church that Easter is the first Sunday after the first fourteenth day of the moon (the Paschal Full Moon) that is on or after the ecclesiastical vernal equinox.

Easter also refers to the season called Eastertide or the Easter Season, which lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. So don't stop eating chocolate after one day and think the party's over - you've got over 5 weeks of celebration to go!

Information from Wikipedia
This photo taken with the Kodak C330 digital camera.

Three Leaf Clover (Shamrock) - St. Patrick's Day

Three-leafed Clover (also called a Shamrock)
St. Patrick's Day

March 17th - St. Patrick's Day. Today I thought I'd share with you a short history of St. Patrick. Some of you might know this already, but a lot of people haven't actually heard the reason we remember him on this day.

Patrick was born in Roman Britain. When he was about sixteen he was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. He entered the church, as his father and grandfather had before him, becoming a deacon and a bishop. He later returned to Ireland as a missionary, working in the north and west of the island. Legend credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God'. St. Patrick died in 493, and by the eighth century he had become the patron saint of Ireland.

In Australia we celebrate St. Patrick's day by wearing a Shamrock or green clothes, as many of the early inhabitants of Australia were from Ireland. If you come from another country, do you celebrate St. Pat's day as well?

This photo taken with the Kodak C330 digital camera.

Ladybug (Ladybird) on Grass Stem

Ladybug (Ladybird) on Grass Stem

Finding a name for this creature was difficult. According to my searches, it is called a Ladybug in the US, but predominantly a Ladybird in the UK and Australia. So I've chosen a compromise here, and called it both! :)

Here is an old nursery rhyme we have here in Australia about the Ladybird - can anyone tell me if this is popular in the US too?

Ladybird ladybird fly away home,
Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that's little Ann,
For she crept under the frying pan.

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/124, F4.0, ISO 100

Sun shining through leaves at Sunset - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Sunset with silhouette of May Bush leaves

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/350, F4.1, ISO 200

Lettuce Leaf - Fractals in Nature

Lettuce Leaf - God's Fractals in Nature

Yesterday I was out in the garden checking the lettuce plants we have growing, and I happened to look down from directly above a plant to see this pattern. The lettuce leaves formed a complicated pattern resembling the precise mathematical form of a fractal. The very fine edges of each leaf are curled in a delicate pattern which imitates the fractal's recursive spirals. This is an example of how creation is so complete - the forms which our best mathematicians struggle with are reproduced in nature without any human intervention!

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/28, F3.9, ISO 100

New Life - Green Leaves with Sun Shining

Wordless Wednesday

Green Leaves with Sun Shining Through - New Life

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

The Glory of the Morning [Sun Breaking over Vine Stem]

The Glory of the Morning - The rising Sun shines it's rays over a Vine Stem

Sun shining over balloon vine stem

This indeed is a glorious shot. The rising sun is just peeking it's rays past the shining edge of a Balloon Vine stem, highlighting the fine hairs running along the side of the stem. The rainbow shower of light falling from the contact point shines out over the lavender flowers in the background, and the green leaves at the sides of this magnificent photo complete the image. This image has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

The structure of this image roughly follows the popular "rule of thirds" approach, placing an imaginary grid over the picture to determine the placement of the primary features. The contact point between sun and stem occurs about two-thirds of the way up the picture, and the green leafy frame occupies about a third of the horizontal space on either side. The weighting of this photo is obviously toward the top, with the bright contact point in the center of that region being the main feature of the photo.

This photo taken with the Kodak C330 camera.

Related Photos:
Balloon Vine Flower with Water Droplets
Prickle Resting on a Leaf - A sign of Contradiction

A Sign of Contradiction 2 [Dead Leaves with Clover]

A Sign of Contradiction 2 - Dead Leaves with Clover

Dead Leaves with Clover

Here is another contrast-themed photo for today. I've found a lot of these lately, starting with A Sign of Contradiction - Prickle Resting on a Leaf. I found this close-up out on the back lawn after the gutters had been cleaned - this is certainly an unusual subject for a photo!

The dead, broken Camphor-Laurel leaves in the foreground of this picture stand out both in color and meaning from the bright green, healthy Clover in the background. The dead leaves give a dull, mundane feeling; the sprouting clover conveys an expression of life and joy.

In terms of composition, this picture is pretty simple. The dull brown leaves comprise the lower half of the image, while the upper portion is dominated by the green clover. The pile of leaves has no special arrangement, however the irregular shape, size, and position of each leaf does help to break up an otherwise monotonous subject.

This photo taken with the Kodak C330 camera.

Related Photos:
Prickle Resting on a Leaf - A Sign of Contradiction
Odd One Out - Camphor-Laurel Leaves in Contrast
Clover

The Autumn Spirit [Maple Leaves]

Maple Leaves on Grass

Maple Leaves on Grass - The Autumn Spirit

We're midway through Winter here in Australia, so most of our trees have lost their leaves. But one of the Maple Trees we have on our 1.5 acre property was planted out of season, so it's only dropping it's leaves now, at the start of July. This is a photo of one of the Maple tree's leaves, with an array of other leaves on the grass in the background. This particular picture looks quite impressive when viewed full-screen - you can click on the picture or the text below it to view the full-size photo.

This picture, like the popular "She sells Sea Shells" photo, makes effective use of the tilting method. In this method, a photo is deliberately taken at an angle to the ground or horizon, usually about 45 degrees. This creates an interesting effect which is used a lot in modern graphics work.

The other striking feature of this photo is the way the single leaf in the foreground stands out in vibrant simplicity from the background of grass and leaves. Again, this mix of repetition & contrast combined with the emphatic regions of shadow, creates a harmonious whole with a uniquely undefinable flavour.

This photo was taken with the Kodak C330 camera.

Related Photos:
She sells Sea Shells (Sea Shell on the beach)
To Stand Out from the Crowd [Red and Green Asparagus vine berries]

Twisting jungle of "Mother-in-law's Tongue"

Twisting jungle of "Mother-in-law's Tongue" plant

Twisting jungle of leaves

Here is another picture with a lot of repetitive patterns in it. I just saw this mini-jungle of tall, twisting leaves and shot a photo of it on the spur of the moment - it just goes to show how not all good photos are "set up".

Somewhat unkindly, the plant featured in this photo is commonly known as "Mother-in-law's Tongue", due to the fact that is is nearly impossible to get rid of! I'm not sure of it's real name, but I'll try to track it down soon. The leaves, although all very similar, also contrast in their details. The repetitive pattern on each leaf is slightly different from one to the other, defining the edges of the leaves and breaking up the visual "flow".

This photo was taken with the Kodak C330 camera.

Related Posts:
Blade of grass with water droplets
Odd one out - Camphor-laurel leaves in contrast

Blade of grass with water droplets

Blade of Grass with small water droplets

I'm back! I've finally got openSUSE Linux installed and functioning properly, so this blog is now officially live again!

This is an extreme close-up photo of a single blade of grass covered in small droplets of water. The photo was taken from about 1-2 cm away from the piece of grass - the closest focus range that the Sony DSC-H1 could achieve, and indeed the closest any camera could get without touching the subject!

Looking at the composition again, the eye is immediately drawn to the sharply focused water droplets in the middle of the picture. The image gives the impression of freshness and beauty, and the crisp edges of the blade of grass in the middle also add a sense of capturing the moment. The deep green of the grass stands out clearly against the rich brown of the undergrowth in the background.

This image is yet another "post-rain" photograph - the high saturation and the presence of water droplets are typical of this style of photo.
This photo was taken with the Sony DSC-H1 camera on macro mode, high aperture.

Attention all visitors:
To celebrate the 2,000th visitor to this blog, I am going to post a "best bits" collection of the best photos from the past 45 days. It would be great if I could get some feedback about which pictures are the favourites from this time period. I'm looking for about 5 selections, so have a browse through the old posts, and email me (davids-pics at temporaryforwarding dot com) with your picks from the past 45 days. Thank you!
P.S. Entries close 13th June

Related Posts:
Balloon vine flower with water droplets
Flower with water droplets
Prickle Resting on a leaf - a sign of contradiction

Odd one out - Camphor-laurel leaves in contrast

Single green Camphor-laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) leaf in contrast with many brown leaves

Green Camphor-laurel leaf amongst dead ones

This is a very contrasting picture of a green camphor-laurel leaf (Cinnamomum camphora) resting amidst many brown leaves. It was taken with a desaturizing filter to remove some of the color from the dead leaves, but the single green leaf still stands out clearly from the rest.

Related Posts:
Prawns Anyone? (seafood scraps)
Prickle resting on a leaf - A sign of contradiction
Following in his footsteps... (pawprints in the sand)
Drought (cracked earth)

Posted to http://davids-pics.blogspot.com on 25th May 2007

Prickle resting on leaf - A sign of contradiction

Prickle Resting on a leaf

Prickle resting on balloon vine leaf

Sorry for the slow update, I thought blogger had uploaded my post but it hadn't, so these past few days I haven't been able to get a post up! I think I've fixed the problem now, so here goes.

This photo is an excellent example of contrasting composition being used to draw attention to the central object of the picture. The leaf in the center of the photo draws your attention toward the right hand side of the picture, while the prickle ("bindie") in the center of the leaf points it's spikes toward the left of the picture. The leaves in the background rotate around the center of the image, making the whole picture focus on the object in the center. The colors also contrast to bring out the prickle.

This photo was also taken with the Sony camera, on a high shutter speed and aperture again.

Related Posts:
Sunflower close-up
Balloon vine flower with water droplets
Life on a smaller scale [Mushrooms in Grass]
The Blossom of the Pond [Water Lily Flower]

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.

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...