New Life

Angel Rays

Fierce

Unfortunately noisy, but still quite an eye-catching photo.

Please Don't Hurt Me!

Wanna Piece of Me?

A Stawberry Flower

I Like That Spider Web, That Is A Nice Spider Web

I Like Dat

What You Lookin' At?

Dragonfly Wing

Withering Beauty

Insert Fitting Title Here

No Editing Whatsoever

Those water droplets look just a bit too perfect, but I assure I haven't edited this photo at all.

Leaf-Petal

Abstract

I realize that this reflection of trees in dark water is not particularly visually pleasing nor would the taking of such a photo require incredible skill, however I find it a rather interesting photo in the way light and matter are distorted by the vibrating water.

Exploration

A bunch of weird insects venturing out from their eggs.

An Experiment With Exposure

This photo had a fairly short exposure time, but I managed (whether accidentally or deliberately I can't remember) nudge the camera to the side a bit during the exposure time. The weird greeny-gold cloud at the bottom of the picture is a coin spinning.

Can't Hide Forever

Dreams

Love That Pink

Flowers Fallen

Spectacular

Butterfly Wing

Who knew that butterfly wings were the inspiration for Minecraft?

Wingardium Leviosa

What you see is the morning dew caught on a spiders web. I just love the fact that it looks like the drops are floating, and also the focus is pretty good.

Ancient Mysteries

 

This picture is really a lot about the angle of the shot. When I took this picture, I was very satisfied, because I'd wanted to get this sort of picture for a long time. It holds an ancient magic, that can never be explained.

What the...?

I assure, I did not do any editing whatsoever on this photo. I got this picture by shining a red laser into the lense of my camera. I had a feeling it probably wasn't very goood for the camera, but I didn't care a whole lot for that camera, and I've got a new one since. I thought it created a pretty darn cool effect. This is my first step into the world of abstract photography, if you can call it that.

No, It's Rounder

This is one of my favourite pictures. To get that perfect focus on a perfectly circular drop of water, on an appropriately hairy leaf wich holds the water in place, is rare.

Sky On Fire

I like this picture very much, because the the soft sunlight sets the clouds on fire, giving them an almost heavenly look. I have not edited this picture at all.

Ripples to the Sand

This is a picture I took when I was on holiday at a beautiful little island resort. I was trying to somehow capture the water meeting the sand, in a beautiful way. I tried a few different angles, and then had a try at just taking the picture directly from the side, and it worked well. I love this picture because it puts the water and the sand on the same level, allowing the viewer to see a sudden but at the same time gradual change from sand to water. I also like the pristine focus on a portion of the water.

Moonstar

I took this picture on a beach, on the east coast of Australia, at night. It's a fifteen second exposure, making the moon look unnaturally bright. I really like the focus on the sand. The light on the water also adds a lot to the picture. Because it's a fifteen second exposure, all the waves have churned together to become a still, flat sea.

Something Different

This a an electric-acoustic guitar. I'm trying at the moment to expand my skills, and get better at taking pictures other than just nature close up. So, this was a bit of an experiment, which I thought worked out quite well.

Ixoras

These flowers are called Ixoras. I wish more humans had names like that.
I really like the focus here, it's crucial to the beauty of the image. I like the way you can't at all tell what the background is, because it's so completely blurred. And here I'm trying to take a step back, and take the picture a bit further away from the object than I usually do.

More Gerberas

This I really like because the focus is just on the tips of the petals of the gerbera that sits in the foreground. I also think having another gerbera in the background gives the picture more beauty.

You Don't Need It All

This is a Gerbera. Something I like about this picture is that it doesn't actually show the whole flower, and it's not all in perfect focus. But where it is in focus, it looks almost perfect, pristine.

Apple Art

The focus isn't quite perfect on this, and wish that the lighting could have allowed for the red of the apple to be a bit more...rich, and solid. The reflection of light on the surface of the apple is unfortunate. The background isn't exactly fitting. But all round a nice picture. Taken on a Sony A550.

Three Bucks

This is a thirty second exposure I took, using a Sony A550. I particularly like the focus on the two dollar coin, and the way it kind of glows. And, yes, I actually got it balancing on top of the fifty cent piece.

Plasma Filaments

Been rather busy lately, so I haven't posted in a while. Here's an extremely cool picture (well, I think it is). Now, I assure you, no editing was done on this picture after I took it. This is a picture of one of my fingers pressed against the glass of a plasma lamp. If you don't know what a plasma lamp is, look it up.
The focus on this picture is not fantastic, but I still really like it just because it's an amazing picture.

An Important Background

This is a Chrysanthemum. One thing I particularly like about this flower is how at the base of the petals, the edges of the petals fold in. This is caught very nicely in this picture. Also, the base of the petals have a slight yellow-green tinge, which - I'm guessing - is due to the green colour of the centre of the flower. The focus on the petals at the far end of the flower is very nice, the focus on the petals nearer to the camera is a fair bit more blurry, which is good, but I would say it's the slightest bit too blurry. I really like the background in this picture, it makes big contrast with the Chrysanthemum in the centre of the shot. It's a very dark, sort of forest-like background, it's rich and a very nice contrast with the central flower, except for a couple of other Chrysanthemums that are just opening.

Monkey Magic

I took this picture using a Nikon D3000. I was at a zoo, and managed to snap this through the gaps in the cage. The exposure was 1/20 of a second, and the ISO speed rating was 400. This picture isn't quite perfectly in focus, which annoys me slightly, but it was the best I got. I like the way the monkey is looking away from the camera, it gives the photo an interesting affect. That branch coming in above and to the right of the monkey gives the picture a nice look in terms of perspective. And the background is comfortably blurry.

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Photography

These are (I think) mostly Harley Davidsons. I've put a sepia effect on this picture. I was going to post a colour version but it seemed too bright, and too vibrant. Putting the sepia effect on it gives it an old fashioned look. The perspective in this picture is very important. Also, the trees in the background (combined with the sepia effect) give the picture a peaceful feel, as though the picture was taken in the middle of nowhere, almost like it's a painting.

What Light Reveals

This is one of my favourite pictures, I've been wanting to post it for a while.
This ring, in bright light, isn't very attractive. But here, in this soft, genuine light, and at this distance, the intricate design is shown more clearly, and the brilliance of the stone set in the ring is much more pronounced. In most of my pictures that are taken at this sort of distance, I like the main part of the image to be in good, clear focus, and then I like the picture to grow less and less defined as you go towards the less important parts of the image. But here, the ring quite suddenly comes into focus just as the metal is starting to thicken (as it goes up towards the stone), and I like the effect that results. Also, the scratches on the wood give the picture a defined look. I didn't put any effects on this picture, it is not edited in any way.

Perspective, Focus, and Reflection

I'm not sure what type of frog this is. I really like the perspective in this picture, the focus on the frog is quite good, and the reflection of the sky in the water is quite attractive, also the murkyness of the pond gives the photo a homey feel.

Flying In Sync

I think I took this picture a little to far away from the birds. The focus isn't quite perfect, and that smudge on the screen is rather annoying, it's a smudge on the lens of my camera.

A Bronze Sky

 The clouds in this picture are amazing, they're what catch my attention. What's bad about this picture is that, it's slightly crooked, and slightly off centre.

Rolling Hills

I've put a shadow effect on this picture, it was a bit too bright for my liking originally. In this photo I really like the way the hills sort of tumble over each other, and also how the shadows of the clouds overhead drastically change the shade of green on certain sections of the landscape.

Shadowed Park

 

 I put a slight darkening effect on this photo, because I felt that that grass and the lighting would look better if it had a warmer, glowing look about it. I like the fact that the focus on the trees isn't quite perfect, it gives the picture a soft look.

A Spiny Leaf Insect

The is a picture of a Spiny Leaf insect, of the species Extatosoma. To get the species and the name of this insect I emailed an entomologist working at the University of Queensland (UQ). The focus on the insect isn't quite perfect, but it's good enough. The level of focus on the background bush is fitting I think, reasonably out of focus in the far background, and better in the close, but not anywhere getting as sharp as the focus on the lower parts of the insect itself.

Mid-Air Murderer

I'm not sure what sort of spider this is, but guessing from the golden colour of the legs, I think that it's a Golden Orb spider. I took this picture in the back yard of a house in Sydney, Australia, Golden Orb spiders are common in Australia. The lush green of the vegetation in the background adds to the shot, and also the sun shining onto the spider pronounces the gold colour of the spider's legs.

A Mock Orange

This is a Mock Orange, but it's not orange. The flower in my blog post titled "An Uncertain Illusion" is also a mock orange. I really like the nonexistent (well, not quite nonexistent) focus on the background, which turns the little bit of light into separate pale, slightly translucent spheres.

One thing that particularly irritates me about this picture is the right most petal of the mock orange, it's too blurry, and it obscures the centre of the flower. Also, the bud to right of that flower petal is too blurry as well. But all in all, this is one of my favourite pictures of a flower.

A Deep, Dented Blur

This is a picture of a water strider on the surface of a very murky creek. These creatures fascinate me, the way they rely on the cohesion and surface tension of water to survive, it's truly amazing, and I find it hard to believe how anybody can believe that a creature so extremely intricate and detailed as this one could possibly be formed by the process of evolution. Anyway, back to the point of this blog. I'm beginning to realize how extremely important the focus in a photo is, when I got to type into a post "what I like about this picture is...", I always think, "oh, it's the focus, again." And so it is with this picture, but, of course, that's not the only major point. Also, the rich, lush green colour that results from the reflection of the trees, combined with the deep, brown colour of the water. Coming back to the focus, the main point is how it's all blurry and not quite visible (in fact, so blurry it irritates some peoples eyes), and then suddenly there are those little dips in the water, the dents created by the pressure of the weight of the water strider on the surface of the water. But, if you zoom in, you'll see that the focus on the water strider is not perfect. But I don't think this is my fault, I was holding the camera extremely steadily, it was the vibration of the water and the constant movement (you can hardly ever get them to stay still) of the water strider. So, yes, there are my views on this picture.