Just felt like a wander outside today. Weather has been pretty wintery of late but the wind has dropped and there's a light drizzle. Can't really identify this little fellow (Eastern Spinebill perhaps) who was focused on the insect population. He sat still long enough for me to take this shot.
Back burning scenery
I'd forgotten that some back there was a burn off to create a fire break in Leura. It was only on one side of the road. This rocky outcrop contains interesting rock formation/colouration on the open side. I've already posted photos of those. The burnt off area provides good b&w photo ops. One resulting feature off the burn off is the partially burnt trunks of trees which turn orange at the base. The fifth colour image in this group shows how it looked before the burn off.
A puzzle
There seems to be something a little Eschery about this image. It was taken in India some years ago. Its difficult for the eye to settle comfortably. Something seems not quite right. The image itself has not been 'altered' as such yet the perspectives seem wrong. Can you put your finger on it?
Spare time shots
I had the chance to visit one of my favourite places in Sydney - the coast. Down for the day from the mountains I didn't have enough time to go for a surf but had a camera and half an hour or so to fill in before attending an event. The light was subdued and significant rain was expected but didn't eventuate. The result is a small selection of the images from that outing. A couple are from a return visit later that afternoon at another location. As viewers of this blog would know I'm no stranger to rocks! A lot of detail and form in small areas. Gotta love nature's work.
Garden in the bush
This garden is less than a 5 minute drive from where I live, smack in the middle of Australian bushland. Its in the mountains where a winter look can be achieved in April thus giving it a very European feel. Due to weather conditions here a mist can develop and create a magical feel and soon we are back to sunny weather and clear skies.
Birds over delta
There are still a few images (perhaps more than a few) from Iceland that I haven't as yet published in any form. Compositionally, they may lack something but yet tell enough of a story to warrant further examination/appreciation. This image is from 2012 during a trip to Iceland and features a flock of birds flying low over a delta at the southern end of the island. It was taken through a side window of an old Cessna. It wasn't particularly cold on this occasion but I could imagine this excercise being quite painful as the weather turns. Holding a fairly heavy DSLR /lens combination steady with some buffeting from the window proved to be testing as well. You don't want to miss anything either so the creeping pain level has to be ignored to get the range of shots you want.
Part of the process of landscape photography is looking for patterns - repetitive lines that give an image strength and 'direction'. Sometimes the eye is drawn to to a portion of the landscape that has a lot of detail but you only make sense of it retrospectively. In this case, flying over the land at a rather fast speed, its best to capture as much as possible. This image is a crop albeit a fairly large one. Parallel, yet oppositely textured diagonal lines create interest.
Its not often you get to fool around with an image to this extent. It makes the creative process of photography that much more engaging and entertaining. The twin line effect has been removed in this crop and the image re-orientated. And finally, the uncropped image - equally satisfying. The dark lines now gaining more prominence, adding some extra life.