Mysterious Waterfall

"An Aura of Mystery"

Deep Blue Mountain Waterfall

This blog's had so many WYD photos recently that you could be forgiven for thinking it's no longer a "nature photography" blog! But never fear, today I re-introduce the old theme again.

This photo was taken on my not-so-recent holiday to Goomburra. I was quite surprised at the way the water turned out - there is a very distinct blue-ish tinge to the whole image, and the fall itself seems to be falling through a veil of dark blue. There is a certain atmosphere to this picture which I can't quite define, but the word "Mystery" seemed relevant to me.

What does this picture make you think of?

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Mountain Waterfall

"Fountain of Beauty"
Mountain Waterfall

For those of you who commented on my last post, your guesses were all very close, but none of you managed to get it exactly right. The "Guess What" picture (right) was actually a close up of moss growing on a wet rock. What some of you thought was sky is actually the water flowing in the background of the picture. The photo shown above is a zoomed out picture of that moss, with water flowing from a waterfall between the rocks.

This photo was taken with a fairly long exposure, in order to create the smooth "flowing" of the water. Anyone who has visited Goomburra National Park will probably recognise this waterfall - it's at the bottom of the Cascades, one of Australia's most well-known waterfalls. Although it's quite small (only about 5m high), the Cascades are a great place for a photo, and the water in the stream below makes a very fresh drink after a long walk.

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Water, a Break, and The Interlude

Something Wet
Guess What!

It's been quite a long time since I last posted here, and a lot's happened in that time. For those loyal readers that have kept watch here in my absence, I'll try to summarize what's been going on.

Firstly - Water! I went on a holiday to Goomburra National Park over the Queen's Birthday weekend, and there was lots and lots of water there! As anyone who's been following my blog will know, there isn't much water where I live so this was a special event. I took about 1,200 shots in the 36 hours, and got quite a few good photos out of the trip. Over the next few weeks I'll try to post some of those shots here. Update: The photo above was taken at Goomburra - can you guess what it is? For the answer, click here.

I've also had exams in the past week, so I've been focusing entirely on study and didn't have time to work on this blog. Consequentially the traffic has gone down from about 300 visits per day to 160. Hopefully with a bit of regular posting this might come up again, but as I've said before, traffic ain't everything!

Finally, there's going to be another interruption to the posting schedule again soon. I'm travelling to Sydney in about a week's time for World Youth Day - an international gathering of youth that will attract 120,000 overseas visitors to Australia. I'm not sure if there will be internet access available, but if there is I will certainly try and get some photos up during WYD.

So, that's about all for now. Thanks a lot to the people who have stayed around during the quiet period in this blog, I will try to get around to your websites soon, but can't guarantee anything until August!

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Watchful Otters - Wordless Wednesday

"Watchful"
Two Otters out of the water
Wordless Wednesday

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Restful Waters - Wordless Wednesday

"Restful Waters..."
Stones reflected in water
Wordless Wednesday

"Beside restful waters he leads me, he refreshes my soul." Ps 23,2

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Queen Mary Falls Waterfall - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday
At the foot of a Waterfall - Queen Mary Falls, Australia

This photo taken with the Kodak C330 digital camera.

Fishing Boat and Pelican at Dawn

Fishing Boat and Pelican on the Water at Dawn

I took this photo on a recent holiday to Lake Cootharaba, near Noosa. The shade of a nearby tree gives the photo a blueish tone. You can clearly see the ropes on the deck of the small fishing boat, and the pelican in the background looking out over the water for breakfast.

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/350, F4.9, ISO 100

Lone Black Rock in Waves - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Single Wet Black Rock buffeted by Waves at the Beach

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/350, F8.0, ISO 100

The Colors in the End of a Rainbow - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Colors of a Rainbow
The End of the Rainbow - A Pot of Gold?

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/140, F4.9, ISO 800

After the Rain Part 1 - Jasmine Flowers

It's been raining here lately, so I though I might post a few of the photos I got just after the rain stopped.

These photos all show jasmine flowers at their various stages of development. The Fujifilm S9600's super macro mode helped here to get really close up shots. The two pictures on the left hand side show water droplets hanging off jasmine buds, while the photos on the right show fully opened jasmine flowers.

These photos taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.

Related Photos:
The Blossom of the Pond (Water Lily Flower)
Balloon Vine Flower with Water Droplets
Silverbeet Leaf with Water Droplets

The Blossom of the Pond [Water Lily Flower]

Pink water lily with water droplets in pond

Water Lily

This Water Lily blossom is yet another example of nature's wondrous beauty. As with all flowers of this sort, the soft pink petals seem to serve as a showcase for the bright yellow center of the flower. Each petal has a delicate adornment of water droplets which help to bring time and depth to the photo. The background of lily-pads help show the close-up nature of the image. This photo was taken at Singleton, NSW, Australia. It shows a completely different aspect of Australia's natural heritage than the Dry Landscape shown before.

This photo is really just a point-and-shoot picture - there are no special compositional techniques used, no fancy aperture or shutter-speed adjustments, just a simple fill-the-frame photo from about 15cm away. The only noteworthy aspect of this photo's composition is the familiar "concentric focus" theme coming through again - the main curves in the picture converge on the central subject of the image.

This photo taken with the Kodak C330 digital camera.

Related Photos:
Sunflower Close-up
Balloon Vine Flower with Water Droplets
Soft-focus Flower

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

Photo of a Lavender flower

Photo of a lavender flower with water droplets

Water droplets on a lavender blossom

The dark tones of this picture blend nicely, creating a natural over-saturated effect. The lavender blossom in the foreground has small droplets of dew on it, from some early morning rain. The flower in the background is nearly a mirror image of the foreground one, giving another interesting effect.

This photo was taken with the Sony DSC-H1 camera (5.1MP, 1/500 shutter, 3.8 aperture).

Related Posts:
Balloon vine flower with water droplets
Flower with water droplets
Close-up of a balloon vine flower
Lavender flower with bee
more...

Balloon vine flower with water droplets

Balloon vine flower with water droplets

Water droplets on balloon vine flower

Here is another photo of a flower just after the rain. This one of a balloon vine flower, has water droplets on it, giving a totally different feel to the same photo taken a few days before. This photo was taken with the Sony DSC-H1, with 1/500 shutter speed and f3.2 with bright lighting, making the flower bright enough, but the background is darkened.

Related Posts:
Soft-focus flower (favourite)
Silverbeet leaf with water droplets
Prickle Resting on Leaf
Dandelion flower

Flower with water droplets

Flower with water droplets
Water droplets on white flower

This morning we got some rain here, so I've been out snapping some of the wonderful pictures you can get when this vitalizing event occurs. This is one of them - a small white flower covered with water droplets. The detail is amazing, and the lighting was perfect with a thick fog producing and even light with gentle shadows. This photo was taken with the Sony DSC-H1, on 1/500th second shutter speed and f2.8, focal length 6.0mm.

Related Posts:
Water droplets on balloon vine flower (favourite)
Water droplets on flower (same as the flower in this post!)
Dandelion flower
Soft Focus Flower (favourite)
Silky Oak Tree flower
Agapantha flowers

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.

Wave breaking over rocks

Wave Breaking

Wave breaking

This photo shows the amazing power of a wave! The splash from this wave has burst high into the air, and it's movement is captured in the image, making it seem as if the wave is about to fall to the ground as you watch! This photo is also taken at Moonee Beach, near Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia.

Water from the sky...

Water droplet splashing into puddle

Water droplet landing

I have managed to get access to a computer, so here is a photo that I shot recently. I actually managed to get the water droplet as it was splashing!

Water Hair

Water droplets on vine tendril

This is amazing! All the tiny hairs on this vine tendril have gathered little drops of water, and are holding them there tightly. You wouldn't see this sort of thing when you go about your normal routine, you have to look very close to see anything special about this vine tendril. This makes me recall the verse from Isaiah: "fearfully and wonderfully made"

Water droplets on flower

Flower with water droplets on

A nice photo of a flower with water droplets on it. I'm not sure what the name of the flower is, so it would be good if someone could post a comment saying what it's called!