Not quite perfect……..but perfect

I heard on the grapevine that it was a magnificent day in my marvellous Melbourne. I heard it on the grapevine because I had to work the morning till noon and then I had to have a nanny nap. So I missed it.

The washing didn’t, because I did get that hung out before I went to work and it was delightfully dry this afternoon when I brought it in from the line after my two hour nap.

You’ve possibly noticed that I’ve mentioned having a nap twice already and you may even be wondering why such a young and effervescent person such as myself would be requiring an afternoon nap. (Cue the canned laughter………. me…..young…. LOL)

I needed a nap because I was very tired after the AFL semi-final match last night between Hawthorn and my magnificent Bulldogs. It was a BIG night. The stress, the crowd, the cheering, the singing, the joy at an unexpected Bulldog win, the long walk back to the train station, the long journey home on the packed train, the after-midnight cup of tea and debrief, the 1:30am crawl into bed where I lay awake for ages because my body was still surging with adrenaline……………

Just over four hours later my alarm was, quite literally, crowing at me and I had to get up and get ready for work.

I require more than four hours of sleep a night. I can survive a couple of nights of sleep deprivation………. but when I’m at the top of my game. Not when my internal battery is flashing the red warning light. Not when I know I’m going out the next night. Not when I’m not 25 anymore and could do silly things like stay out late all week and still go to work every day.

So I had a delicious nanny nap. Actually, it was much more than a nap. A nap would be half an hour, on the couch, fully clothed with a throw rug draped over my weary carcass. I had a sleep. Two hours, naked, in bed, blinds closed with the dogs snoring beside me.

But when I awoke and went outside to bring the washing in before I went out for dinner with friends, the light hitting the remaining blossom on my apricot tree was so sublime I was required to run inside to grab the Nikon to capture the moment.

 

The K.I.S.S. principle

 

At the end of the day the K.I.S.S principle is often the best. For those scratching their heads the K.I.S.S. principle is an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. It applies to everything. Cooking, gardening, shop window displays, life and in my case tonight……….photography.

You’ll never guess where tonight’s inspiration came from. I was feeding the dogs. Inspiration central!!!

But the light seemed perfect, the Calla Lily was perfect and the image I saw in my brain was clean and simple. The image in my brain was not cluttered with distraction. There was no fancy background. No leaves. No marks on the flower. Simple.

The simple things in life are often the best.

Why do I always think of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie when I see these plants?

I have never read the May Gibbs story of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and I don’t believe that I ever had it read to me, so why do I always think the words “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie” when I see Banksia plants and their seed pods..

I never ever think of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie when I look at Gum nuts or Eucalyptus blossom, but just one peek at a Banksia seed pod and I’m “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie”ing in my brain for the next ten hours.

Somehow I seem to know that the Banksia Men were the bad guys. If I didn’t know about the books I would simply find the seed pods intriguing with their many open mouths.

Fortunately it’s just the seed pods that have the evil image in Australian children’s literature. Which is a good thing because the flowers of the Banksia are simply gorgeous.

I’d be pretty upset if the flowers were tarnished by the evil reputation of their brother seed pods. I’d never be able to stand having them as cut flowers in my home if they were equally devious and dastardly.

The wisdom of the Greeks

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

― Anonymous Greek Proverb

 

I was listening to Hughesy and Kate tonight on KIIS FM radio as I do every night that I’m driving home from work between 4 and 6pm when Kate Langbroek paraphrased a brilliant quote that I had never head before.  (I actually thought that it was an exact quote until I Googled it to determine its origin. Kate is a very intelligent woman and such quotes would be tricky to get spot on when pulled from the memory bank at short notice, so I forgive you Kate.)

It is a bloody amazing bit of wisdom.

The quote got me thinking. About what exactly I’m not sure. I have done an awful lot of thinking lately, a lot of which has helped me, whereas other thoughts have just had me tangled in mental knots.

There have been lots of tiny epiphany moments, when suddenly things become crystal clear. Quite often of late the epiphany occurs as I’m trying to write my blog post. I had one the night before last as I described the balancing act of life. Suddenly, like the lights on an oncoming car being turned on high beam, I realised where one of my main mental blocks lay. I mean………..BANG!!!………..it was so clear it was almost blinding.

But then tonight another little epiphany struck as I was crossing the street, walking to my car. Completely out of nowhere came a settling in my core being. A bit like after a great visit to the osteopath, when everything is back in line where it’s supposed to be.

Those Greek men (or women) were very wise. But I’m not so old as to not to expect to appreciate the shade of the life tree that I am tending.

My tree will grow tall and strong. Its strong boughs and its lush leaves will give shelter and shade to all who choose to seek refuge beneath them or to make a home within them.

 

I wonder what they’ll think of this?

So, there I was walking back to my car after work (Walking briskly too, I might add, as you do when you had an early start and a subsequent early finish and all you want to do is go home) when I happened to spy a lovely example of Australia’s native floral emblem that was low enough for me to photograph.

I was unconsciously scoping the surrounding area of my brisk walk for possible obscure photo opportunities but the brilliance of the yellow stopped me in my tracks. One part of me wanted to walk by as it was thinking ‘Really?? Another photo of a flower????’, but the other compulsive part of me was thinking ‘Just look at the way the sun is glowing from behind the wattle! Imagine how it might look at f2.8 !! The bokeh!!!!!!!’

I took five shots of various angles and depths of field and was ‘tweaking’ them at home in Lightroom 5 when I realised that I could still make the photo look different. It was all about zooming in………. and I got everything I wanted. Sunlight, bokeh and bright yellows.

I’m happy.

 

I do believe that Autumn is coming

 

Wandered into the Royal Botanic Gardens in my marvellous Melbourne today with a bunch of my photography pals.

Didn’t have any real plans of what I was hoping to capture. Didn’t have any real idea of what I might find, other than lots of plants, lots of green and maybe some flowers. It is a Botanical Garden after all………….

There was lots of green. Green leaves, green grass, green stuff floating on the lakes.

There were enough flowers still in bloom to keep us happy with our close-up shots and macro lenses.

But there really wasn’t a whole lot of reds, yellows, oranges and assorted russet tones to indicate that my marvellous Melbourne is well and truly heading into Autumn.

Daylight saving time is over. It is fully dark by 7pm. It was a grey day. There was precipitation. I was wearing a long sleeved top.

But it still didn’t feel like Autumn was upon us.

I did, however, manage to find one plant in the huge Royal Botanic Gardens that had read the memo regarding the seasonal expectations.

Finding the sunshine again

It is a slow process, but I am finding the sunshine and colour in my world again. The colours are starting to be able to be seen through eyes and a mind that saw only shades of grey a couple of weeks ago. (And not the fun 50 Shades of Grey either)

Depression is a nasty beast. It takes away everything that you love. It makes you unbearably tired. It prevents you from being able to complete even the most basic of household tasks. It makes you think the saddest thoughts. It sucks all the colour out of your world.

I can’t even begin to describe my relief at feeling the colour return to my world. I’m not jumping up and down with excitement. I know that I could quickly return to monochrome if I go too fast……………

But knowing what it is that brought me to that dark place…………

Knowing that there are people in my world who can help me fix the issues that saw me spiral into sadness……..

Being confident that I will sort myself out, once and for all…………….

Hello colour. Hello sunshine. It’s so nice to see you again.  🙂

 

 

 

Show me the Monet!!!!

Just over a week ago I went out to a magnificent garden. The Blue Lotus Water Garden. I’m bloody glad it was magnificent because it took me an hour and a half to drive their from my home. (And of course, there was the hour and a half drive home!)

Such a picturesque place.

You shouldn’t take photos in the middle of the day

These beauties are as big as an adult hand. Photo taken in full midday sun.

If you’ve made the move to a ‘good’ camera and have begun reading up about photography or have done some camera courses you will have definitely been told that is it ‘unwise’ to plan a photo excursion for the middle of the day. The light is harsh, the shadows unflattering and your photos will look quite overexposed.

I know all this but I had to walk a kilometre back to my car at lunchtime today and I did not go empty-handed. (Stupid me left her mobile phone in the holder on the dash where it was visible to anyone passing by. I did not want to end my day with the discovery of a broken car window and a missing phone.)

The midday walk was through Queen’s Park and I figured that I did not want to miss an opportunity if there was an opportunity to be had so naturally Nikon D750 came for the trek.

Can I just say, it was bloody hot out there in my marvellous Melbourne at lunchtime. Hot, sunny and windy. Three ingredients that did not bode well for photos.

But……in spite of these obstacles, I did manage to get a couple of lovely photos.

This is Boy. He just wanted to get up close for a slobbery kiss. Thank goodness for the shade of the big trees.

The kindness of strangers

From a distance

I have been humbled by the kindness of some people I have recently met through my love of photography. People who for all intents and purposes are total strangers, but who have offered me friendship, advice, help, adventure and the loan of expensive camera equipment.

There is the lovely lady I met on the train……… We have already been out together on a photographic adventure into our marvellous Melbourne and have more adventures/excursions planned.

Then there is the professional event photographer who is always willing to answer my questions and offers me great encouragement.

And now I can add some delightful members of the Essendon Camera Club, of which I have recently become a member. These lovely folk have been very open and friendly to this newcomer. Some of them I recognised from the two club meetings I had attended and I spoke to them at the Digital Show we photo-nuts attended. We have exchanged thoughts on camera envy, lens envy and future equipment ideas. One of these lovely people happens to be a Nikon owner, like me,  and was discussing FX lenses with me to use on my new full-frame D750.

I currently only own a 50mm prime lens, which I love and adore, but I know that I need to look at my options in terms of expansion to my range. Lenses are not cheap and so you really need to put a lot of thought into such a decision.

What lens is going to suit my photographic needs in both the long and short term? What focal length will I get most use of? What direction is my photography going to take? Will I branch out into landscapes and therefore need a good wide-angle lens? Will my interest continue down the animal photography road requiring a zoom? Will I keep experimenting with the wonders of macro because that’s another type of lens again?

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I was offered the loan of a sexy zoom lens. I have met this gentleman three times and he was willing to lend me an expensive lens!!!! Expensive. $600 second-hand expensive. And heavy!! I think the weight of a lens like this is going to affect my purchasing decision. I am an instinctive photographer. If I can’t quickly grab and shoot I’m not going to be happy.

That someone, a virtual stranger, would offer to lend me an expensive 70-200mm lens so that I could try it out for size and see what I thought of it quite simply blows my mind.

I mean………wow!

I have a week to play with this lovely lens. Unfortunately, the weather today has prevented my from taking the lens further than my own backyard. Gosh I love Melbourne weather. Sunny and 26 degrees one day………..17 degrees with rain and constant drizzle the next. I have my fingers crossed for a nice few days ahead so that I can really have a play.

I do, however, quite like the photo I took tonight from the protection of the doorway. 200mm  ISO 100 1/60s  f2.8  Not bad for a first attempt, but I think I should make sure that my shutter speed is faster.

Live and learn. Live and learn.