The Glory of the Heavens - Clouds and Tree - Sky Watch Friday

Clouds and a Tree in Shadow - Sky Watch Friday

I got this shot purely by chance one day. I was outside with the camera getting some nature photos, when I happened to glance up and see this stunning cloud formation aligned perfectly with the top of a gum tree. Had I gone a few steps further in any direction, this scene wouldn't have been as exceptional, as the tree needed to be in just the right position relative to the clouds for this shot to work. As it turned out, I was able to quickly snap this picture.

The composition of this shot is almost the inverse of Rembrandt's famous style, where he uses small areas of bright light to draw attention to important areas of the painting. In this photo, the large dark area occupied by the tree draws your attention, and then you notice the bright white cloud in the opposite corner. Then a trailing wisp of cloud brings your attention back in circle to the right, where the dark tree is.

Another interesting aspect of this photo is the many different layers that appear in the one picture. At least four are distinctly visible - the tree, the dark layer of cloud, the light layer of cloud, and the blue-grey sky. All of these elements again combine to create the "clockwise rotation" of the eye when looking at this picture.

This photo taken with the Fujfilm 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.

Storm Clouds - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Storm Clouds

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/220, f/3.6, ISO 100

How to live without batteries

David McMahon posts another interesting question on his blog this weekend:

How efficiently (or inefficiently) would your household function without batteries?

For me, the first thing which came to mind was that my camera wouldn't work without batteries. So if I had no batteries in the house, I'd have to go back to the "old-fashioned" film method (some film cameras don't need batteries). But this is more inconvenient than it would seem. If I wanted to change to film, here are some of the costs that would be involved:

• I'd have to buy a new SLR. Cost: AUD$700+
• Since September (four months ago), I've taken approximately 9,000 photos. If I were to take these on film, I would need about 375 rolls of film. These would cost over AUD$1,800.
• To develop the 375 rolls of film would cost about AUD$6,000

This brings the total cost of film photography for 4 months to about AUD$8,600! And that's ignoring the storage factor - 375 rolls of film take a lot of storage space.

Apart from cameras, there are quite a few other things in the house that use batteries. For example:

• T.V. remote controls - These devices are very handy, and without them we would all be forced to perform the laborious chore of actually standing up and walking across the room whenever we wanted to turn up the volume.
• Cordless (or mobile) telephone - Have you ever noticed that when you're talking on a cordless phone you tend to start walking around the room? Without them, you'd have to stay standing beside the phone the whole time - until you need to get the pencil and paper that aren't there.
• Computer - Hang on, doesn't the computer run without batteries? Yes, as long as it is turned on. But when you turn off your computer, a small battery inside of the case takes care of the time, making sure that when you next start up, it knows what day and hour it is. Without batteries, we'd have to reset the computer's time - and the time of every clock in the house - all day.
  

The verdict: Thank God for digital photography - and pray that we never run out of batteries!

Australia Day - What is Australia Day?

Australia Day - What is Australia Day?Australia Day is the official national day of Australia, which commemorates the establishment of a settlement and penal colony at Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip, who later became the first Governor. Australia Day is celebrated on 26 January annually, and has been declared as an official public holiday in all states and territories of Australia. Known also as Anniversary Day or Foundation Day, Australia Day is widely considered to be an important day in the history of Australia.

On Australia Day, the winner of the Australian of the Year award is announced by the Prime Minister; the award is given to any Australian citizen who has shown a "significant contribution to the Australian community and nation", and is an "inspirational role model for the Australian community". Subcategories of the award include "Young" and "Senior Australian of the Year", and an award for the "Australian Local Hero".

Recorded celebrations date back to 1808, and in 1818, Governor Lachlan Macquarie held the first official celebration of Australia Day. In 2004, an estimated 7.5 million people attended Australia Day celebrations and functions across the country.

Source: Wikipedia

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

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

Best Nature Pictures of 2007 - Happy Birthday, dear "Bloggy"....

This January marks an important milestone for this blog: it is exactly One Year since the first visitor came to davids-pics.blogspot.com! Since then, the site has received 10,600 visits, and over 400 comments from all over the world. In the past few weeks, the average has been about 75 visits per day, so traffic is increasing quickly as well.

Here are some facts and figures from the history of this blog so far:

• Total visits: 10,681
• Total pageviews: 16,651
• Total posts: 171
  
• Total comments: 455
  
• Avg. Time on Site: 1:05
• Avg. Pages per Visit: 1.56
• Most Popular page overall: /2007/04/drought.html - 4.74% of total traffic
  
• Most Popular search term: images of nature - 2.76% of total traffic
• Most Popular referring site: google.com - 44.27% of total traffic

I'm certainly happy with the progress made with this blog, and I'd like to specially thank all of you who visit and contribute your comments and advice - without you, this blog wouldn't exist today! I hope you are all enjoying the photography posted here, and as always I am open to suggestions for improvement. Here's looking forward to another successful and enjoyable year of blogging in 2008!

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Some of the best nature pictures from 2007:

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

Australian Blue Tongue Lizard - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Australian Blue Tongue Lizard (Tiliqua mustifaciata) basking in the Sun

This photo taken with the Fujifilm S9600 digital camera.
Shutter speed: 1/209, F4.6, ISO 100