“Leaves. You’re going to photograph leaves…?”

Yes. I photograph leaves.

Yes, regular library user waiting at the tram stop, watching while I pick up some lovely, dead, dry, Autumn leaves from the garden beds in front of work. I am going to photograph leaves.

I do believe that he may consider me to have lost a few marbles. That may actually be a correct assumption on his part. This ‘photo a day and blog about it for 365 days challenge’ that I have dobbed myself into has had me questioning my sanity on more than one occasion.

I didn’t tell him why I was going to photograph leaves. No need to explain that I had decided yesterday that I would see how the dry Autumn leaves looked in monochrome.  Best to leave them guessing is my thought on that.

But I’ll tell you something…..the leaves looked pretty great in monochrome. There is one photo that is a ripper and that one has to stay in its natural colour. Which means that you will have to wait until monochrome May is finished. 🙂

Only minor tweaking required

You can already see the potential new spring growth on the bare branches.

The magic of monochrome May in Melbourne is that the weather is invariably grey and bleak. Grey, cold, darkening, damp, and bleak were the adjectives that I met on the way to my car tonight.

The only upside to this depressing situation is that today is Friday, I was done with work for the day and my car is in an all-day carpark space that I fluked this morning. AND my photo opportunity is right where my car is parked.

The top photo was converted to B&W in Lightroom 5, however the last photo only had the contrast and highlights adjusted.

All I have adjusted in this one is the highlights and contrast.

Mother Nature delivered.

I love Mother Nature

How fortunate I am to work so close to a beautiful park such as Queen’s Park in Moonee Ponds. The seasons change and the park changes with them. Beautiful, lush foliage in spring and summer followed by the changing colours of autumn and the bare branches of autumn and winter.

Perfect photographic fodder for amateur photographers like myself.

Tonight I left work and had no photo for my blog. I had my trusty Nikon D5100, but I had no photo. I had no ideas for photos and I had had no inspiration today. I walked to my car in the rapidly fading light thinking that I might just have to pull one out of the archives for today.

And suddenly………..there it was. The photo.

Fragile, bare branches in silhouette against a clear early evening sky.

Thank you Mother Nature. You have delivered me another beautiful photo opportunity. I hope you think I have done it justice.

May means…………….

I’m guessing that in its youth this tree was tied to a stick

It is the first day of May and the first day of the fifth month of my photographic challenge that I set myself. Because of this, I woke up this morning deciding that I had to challenge myself within the challenge. (Because taking a photo every day and blogging about it was not enough).

Many photographers took the “M” month of March to be their monochrome month. I have chosen May to be mine, because I wasn’t ready for it two months ago. To be truthful, I’m not sure that I’m ready for it now, but a challenge is a challenge and I will tackle it head on. (Which is the way I approach most things)

So May will be black and white……. Monochrome.

How fortunate we are that trees look awesome in monochrome. 🙂 I wonder if the horizontal mark on this stately Eucalyptus tree was created by the original tethering used when the young tree was planted.

Wow!! The colours of Autumn

Morning light through the Autumn leaves

The colours of Autumn fair blew me away today.  It was a spectacularly, splendid autumn day in my marvellous Melbourne. Very crisp this morning when I woke up. (Crisp is my polite way of saying that it was bloody cold) But the sun came out into clear blue skies and filled the day with promise.

Sadly, that promise did not extend to finding a carpark within cooee of work. (for my overseas readers, on this occasion the word ‘cooee’ refers to distance. It is also a bush call used when searching for someone as it is easy to yell and the sound travels a long way)

The upside of having to park miles away from work was that I had to traverse Queen’s Park and that is where the splendour presented itself.  The Plane trees are changing colour right at this very moment and they looked sensational in the morning light.

But the delight did not end there. The light this afternoon after 5pm was different again. The sky was still a brilliant shade of autumn blue which put the trees into perfect contrast. So vibrant and the clarity was tangible.

Afternoon light perspective

“What is autumn blue?” I hear you ask. I’ve had to put my thinking cap on to answer this question. Because I am not an artist or painter I can only describe how colours feel to me. For me ‘autumn blue’ is a different blue to ‘summer blue’ which is strong, deep and bright and different again to ‘winter blue’ which is muted and pale. ‘Autumn blue’ is crisp and sharp with a sense of the coming cold temperatures.

A little bit of light and a pretty flower

The Wattle flower. The floral emblem of Australia.

I never know what my photo of the day will be. Never know where the inspiration will come from. Never know what will catch my eye and need to be photographed.

But, being ‘ready’ and having a device to take a photo with at hand, makes the whole process so much simpler. And when I say being ready, I simply mean being awake, being aware of what is around you and having your mind open to possibility. Because I know that if I was walking around with my eyes to the ground and my mind full of negative energy I would not be taking any decent photos. I would not be taking any photos at all and this whole ‘A photo a day for 365 Days’ challenge that I set myself would be dead in the water.

What a waste of a good camera that would be.

So instead, I walk with my head high, my eyes open and my mind ready to receive possibilities. And while it is Autumn in Melbourne and the leaves are falling to the ground, the branches are becoming bare and the skies are getting more grey, spotting the cheery brightness of the wattle tree’s flowers certainly lifts the spirits. Makes for a nice photo too.

I believe Autumn has arrived in my garden

Crepe Myrtle.

I have discovered that I don’t have many deciduous trees in my garden. Which is a shame, because I actually like deciduous trees.

I like the way their leaves change colour in Autumn.

I like to see the leaves fall to the ground.

I enjoy grabbing the rake and piling the leaves up to decompose on the garden.

I like the way the bare branches let more sunlight into gardens and homes when it’s needed most.

I miss the piles of autumn leaves in the road gutters, burning away as they did when I was a little girl.

Deciduous trees let the world know that the seasons are changing. Their leaves change colour in the autumn and we all know it’s autumn. They get new growth in spring so that we know it’s spring. Their branches are bare in winter and they are grey, just like winter.

But I stepped outside today to water some new plants and the Crepe Myrtle was screaming at me to be noticed. The burgundy red leaves were fairly yelling at me to pay attention to them before they vanished for the upcoming winter. Ok Crepe Myrtle, I saw you. You are beautiful. You are my photo of the day.

Where did those long shadows come from?

Suddenly my photograph became a painting

I spent a fair bit of time in Queen’s Park today because the early Autumn weather was simply divine. I escaped the confines of the library at lunchtime purely to enjoy the feel of the sun on my skin. This is a very dangerous thing for me to do, because I find it exceedingly difficult to convince myself that I need to go back inside to continue my working day once I have made an escape.

The park was filled with families having picnics, fellow workers also taking the opportunity that beautiful weather affords, the ducks and swans on the lake paddling furiously towards anyone who looked remotely like they had food …….. Queen’s Park was THE place to be today.

And this afternoon, at the happy conclusion to my work day, I was able to enjoy another peaceful hour in the park. What surprised me about this afternoon was how quickly an Autumn haze had arrived and how definitive the lengthened shadows of the trees were.

I’m certain that only a short few weeks ago the shadows of 5pm were not as pronounced as they were today. How quickly the changing of the seasons and the changing position of the sun in the sky alters our days.

I couldn’t get my camera out of my bag quick enough. I wanted to capture that gentle haze that softens everything. I wanted to freeze those long fingers of shadow so that I could compare them with the spring or summer shadows.

Sometimes you’ve just got to buy your own flowers.

The view from above

I love flowers.

I have a special fondness for Australian Natives and would always prefer them over roses any day. I would love to receive flowers. But I have given up. No amount of subtle or not-so-subtle suggestion over the years has got me my flowers.

A different angle

If I want flowers, I have to go out and buy my own.

Another perspective

So please enjoy my latest gift to me.

Alternative background

I took these shots this afternoon using natural light from a north facing window. ISO 500 F/1.8 using aperture priority on all photos. Black hessian as background for top three photos and off-white wall for the last.

A walk in the park

A walk in the park.

Working in Moonee Ponds will inevitably mean a walk in the park. Not because you feel the urge to commune with nature, but because the only place where you can park your car for the whole day is nearly a kilometre from work and the park is a rather large obstacle between your car and your destination.

If you are familiar with the brilliant children’s story “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen you will know that “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ll have to go through it.”

And ‘go through it’ is exactly what I did yesterday.

Autumn has just begun in Melbourne. The deciduous trees are thinking that they should strip for the approaching winter. Some are blushing and turning delicious shades of orange and red before letting their foliage lingerie fall to the ground. Others are less shy and have begun dropping leaves without preamble.

Queen’s Park has an assortment of the brazen and shy. I had the pleasure of strolling through an avenue of brazen hussies who have just begun baring their limbs. There is a magic in walking beneath an avenue of majestic, mature trees whose topmost branches intertwine and create a delicate canopy. It almost makes the inconvenience of the long walk bearable.

I’d like to use public transport to get to and from work. I have done it in the past and found it very relaxing. No hassles with traffic. No issues with trying to find somewhere to park. But these days I live too far away for it to be time effective.

So a walk through the park it will have to be.