A First – A Win!

Every now and then I remember that the Brisbane newspaper “Courier-Mail” runs a weekly photo competition in their Saturday magazine, and I check out the topic, and send a in photo if I have something suitable, and promptly forget.  Imagine then my surprise when I received a letter on 25th February saying I had won!

Ladybird in Rose Petals

The topic was “Mini”, so I submitted this photo of a ladybird on a rose I took about two years back.  I found her on my stove, and in the absence of a yard of any kind, had moved her to the single rose I had growing in a pot on my balcony.  I’d started experimenting with macro photography so when I found this patient model I took the opportunity to take dozens of photos, most of which, on close inpection, weren’t really all that sharp, or there was something distracting in the background, or numerous other faults.  There was something distracting in the background of this image too, but a tight crop fixed that (admittedly at the cost of quality for a large print).

I’ve always been quite fond of this little lady, especially after the eureka moment I had when I finally managed to balance the colours right to bring out the red (red is always SO HARD to get looking natural).  Now she’s really paid back my good deed.

I have to add, I was quite taken with the first runner-up image in the competition as well. Check it out here – Uluru as you’ve never seen it before.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

It must say something about my psyche that I’m drawn to capture images that denote solitude.  I have a vast collection of lone trees, lone chairs, lone houses on a hill, lone bugs, lone birds in the sky, lone weeds in the park… you name it.  Not to mention sweeping vistas in desolate locations without a soul to be seen.  I can’t say I feel particularly lonely any more than the next person, so I don’t know what this says about me!

Stuck

A crane fly at Falmouth Harbour, trapped on the wrong side of the glass.  Perhaps a bit ridiculous?

Edge of the World

Les Arcs, France.  The world is a big place.

Small

Sometimes too big.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer

Summer means beach, that’s easily the first image that comes to mind.  I’m Australian, and you can’t get much more summer than the beach.  but I don’t really have any photos of a summery beach.  Although I’m Australian, as a kid I didn’t spend days down the beach in summer.  Instead, summer was camping trips to the bush, paddling pools or the local public pool, bbqs in the backyard, and, of course, Christmas!

I spent the last twelve years living in the UK, further from a beach than ever before in my life.  Summer there is fleeting but very appreciated, and appears as picnics in the public parks late into the sunlit evenings.  Summer is also a profusion of life, as delicate spring flowers give way to bright summer colour and insects both cute and irritating awaken to make hay while the sun shines.  So here is a sunny coloured photo for a bright sunny season, my favourite season of the year.

 

This photo is also the second from my tiny iStockphoto portfolio to be purchased, so look out for this lil bee in his sunflower coming to a pamphlet near you!