Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Sunday, February 04, 2024

Back in Nature - End of Summer Photowalk

To celebrate their 20th Birthday, Flickr are reviving their worldwide photowalks. I'm going to revisit the first walk I led as part of the worldwide photowalk project back in 2016. We'll walk through what was then the conservation area behind Jells Park Lake to capture the natural world thriving amidst suburbia. The conservation area is now opened-up but some trails are blocked off, nature is still happily doing its thing. 



This year has been a milder summer and vegetation is thriving, though some weeds are a bit overwhelming. Insect and bird life are literally hopping and buzzing. I've scheduled the walk later to take advantage of the low angle summer light. Precious moments as we only get about half an hour of golden light at this time of year at the end of summer. 

The walk winds through the trees and shrubs behind the lake. There's a quiet beauty in the lengthening shadows and soft evening light. All varieties of birds can be spotted flitting through the branches or foraging on the ground. The constant hum of cicadas and other insects fills the air. Underfoot, wildflowers and grasses sway in the breeze. It's a glimpse into the natural rhythm at summer's close.

If you'd like to stay until 8:30pm and the weather is kind, you'll have a great opportunity to watch the full moon rise over the Dandenongs or be reflected in the lake's still waters. The interplay of light on the landscape creates unique photographic possibilities.

Like the original walk, this photowalk is limited to 20 participants and is free. I hope you can join me to capture the magic of nature at summer's end! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Registration via Eventbrite

Saturday, July 02, 2016

The Patterns of Life

http://myscratchings.tumblr.com/post/146787368215/thinking-about-patterns-in-nature
The Patterns in nature can be interpreted in many ways they can be represented by intricate lines or juxtaposition of positive and negative shape.

There is a tension between the intricate and busy and the calm rhythmic flow. We see this tension as beauty and art.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

ThePatch :: Toy on Parade in Nature

Meet Blue Lego Guy (created with Lego Digital Designer)The patch theme this month is Toy On Parade, and the same toy needs to be in each photo. After having fun with my grandson making the automobile awesome motion gif earlier in the year I figure this was a challenge made for a bit more lego fun. If you have seen the lego movie on DVD and watched the special features you will have seen one of the designers describing some of the designs He is using a program called Lego Digital Designer, which can be downloaded from Lego. The models for the lego movie where largely developed with this easy to use CAD like program. It can be a little daunting (if your older than 6), it has a database of every lego part there is!  I quickly realized it does give me the ability to create a character that could be easily pose & animated. Perfect for this challenge, assuming a virtual character can be on parade. My young lego advisor loved the project and wisely helped choose a very simple character with which to build some adventures and hopefully some good photos. Meet Blue Lego Guy.

blue wren & blue lego guy in Paint.NET LayersHis first adventure in Nature, clearly was to be based around a small blue wren I had seen and photographed at a Jells Park lake on Friday. With some head scratching, even reading the manual and using the layers in Paint.NET I was soon able to acquaint blue lego guy with the blue wren.  Ok not so convincing and I liked a different photography anyway, with some raindrops on the grass around the wren but with depth of field giving a more blended background onto which to superimpose blue lego guy. A little bit of posing adjustements back in Lego Digital Designers and adding a camera, yellow of course. Getting convincing perspective was a bit of a challenge and I had to wing that in the end as well as guessing the relative height he might be.  A little bit of cloning to put a couple of blades of grass in front of his legs and some suggestions of shadows. Finally a cinematic wide screen crop.
Voilá ….Smile Mr Wren!


Preview of blue lego guy at work


Wasn’t so hard after all. Stay turned for more Blue Lego Guy adventures.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

PhotoFriday :: Behind the Veil of Gaia

Returning to the theme of the Veil of Gaia as an art project,
the scratch illustration is loosely based on Botticelli's Venus
For PhotoFriday‘s topic from Nature.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

PhotoFriday :: Nature Walk


Part of the Buderim Forest board walk under construction.


For PhotoFriday‘s topic Nature Walk

Friday, April 22, 2011

PhotoProject :: Earth Day Up Close & Personal

Today is Earth Day, and an up close and personal look at my world seemed like a great idea for a PhotoProject. This little busy bee was snapped in my Creatacious Garden. The natural world is all around us and a marvelous subject for macro photography, all you need to do is go outside, find the flower icon mode on your camera, get close and start shooting.

IMGP5913 IMGP5914 IMGP5915

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Why not make your portfolio into a video!


Nature's Entryway
Originally uploaded by Reggiesgirl
Reggiesgirl from flickr has a used wonderful way to show her portfolio of nature photography, she made it into a video. With so many screens atound in modern life, making your still work into a video (or slideshow) is a great way to guarentee they will be seen (at least by your friends and family, but if you want your 15 seconds of "net fame" you cam also trust your arm on YouTube as reggie's girl did)



There are any number of good programs (too many to mention here) with which make your slide show and convert them into a video masterpiece. Try Microsoft's Photo Story 3 if you are looking for a free program to try out. At the very least you probably already have Movie Maker which can also do the job.