Ah, Grasshopper!

I found this li'l martial arts expert in one of the cumquat trees in my backyard on the weekend... He was only 5mm long, so the Sigma 150mm macro lens came in handy. I am also indebted to Alex Wild for his kindness in sharing his insect-photography techniques.

Lightroom3 Beta

I'm trialling a beta version of Lightroom3 for processing RAW files... whack colours, hey?!

Wasps at Happy Earth

Today I went to an open-garden day at Happy Earth with Regina and David and Maia. As you can read on the Happy Earth website, this home and garden is "an adventure in urban sustainability" exploring how the owners Richard and Ally might be able to "retrofit a typical suburban house and lawn into a healthy, efficient home with an abundant food garden." For them, being sustainable is really about living happier, healthier lives and feeling good about doing things that are good for themselves, the planet and their community. "It’s about wholesome food and lower bills, meaning more time for family and friends, and less time working."

Richard and Ally's vision for Happy Earth is also about "sharing stories and providing practical, independent information about sustainable living in Wollongong..." - and to that end they host occasional open-garden visits where they generously share their stories, experience and expertise with other interested people. They have documented their journey on their website where you can find abundant resources and information about their permaculture projects and philosophy-in-action.

Here are some macro shots of a wasp seen busily pollinating the fennel flowers.

Australian Native Flora (haiku)

here's a wax-flower:
Eriostemon "Stardust"
in Barbara's garden.

Banners... click pics for full-size images.

After making the banner for my friend Jeremy's blog,




I thought I should do the same for Photo-Ventura.




Funny how it goes in the choice of images... how do you chose your five most representative images? Three of the ones in my new banner were taken on the same day - a cold wintry afternoon last year, down at Shell-Harbour near Wollongong, NSW, on the way to the Buddhist Temple. My photographer-friend Richard and I had gone on one of our 'outings' - to-see-what-we-can-see - but the weather had turned and we were freezing our butts off, not sure if there was anything 'there' to photograph. Just goes to show, the most evocative images don't always come on a 'perfect day'...

In the end, I chose 5 images that evoked a sense of journey and ad-venture-a!

The boat? Boats in general connote journeys past and journeys yet to come and the orange buoy echoed the red of the heading-text very well;

The heart-shaped rope-bollard represents the 'heart' of courage and inspiration necessary for a journey: an anchor, a place to connect to, a safe harbour;

The blurry incense smoke is evocative of the spirit and mysticism inherent in every journey - the parallel story that runs alongside every inspiration to travel through space and time, the narrative of the inner journey meshing with the outer;

The bright green graphic-like palm frond brings Wood energy to the page: venturing forth, sprouting, growth, renewal;

And the duck...? Have you seen that image somewhere before?... Besides being a good colour resonance with the hues of the other pics, it is an oblique reference to the Direction-Finding-Duck in Michael Leunig's 'Voyage of Vasco Pyjama'.

Here's Leunig's quote - it is from his book The Curly Pyjama Letters, in which Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama correspond with each other from the perspectives of their two worlds. Mr Curly is at home at Curly Flat and Vasco is travelling the world in the company of his direction finding duck.

Mr Curly writes to Vasco:

"... In response to your question,
'What is worth doing
and what is worth having?'

I would like to say simply this:
It is worth doing nothing
and having a rest...."

Palm Sunday

A palm tree on the banks of the Hunter River, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

White Rose Heart (haiku)

at the heart of it
you catch more bees with honey
than with vinegar

Rainbow Umbrella

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Washing Up

When I finally made the decision a year ago on which DSLR to go for, the Olympus E510 won the day - it was the smallest, lightest DSLR on the market that also has Live View. When I first unpacked the box from my favourite camera shop, I was eagerly looking around the house at things to take pictures of, to see what the camera could see. The back-lighting glowing through the washing up detergent caught my eye and I love the way the bokeh gives the pic a sublime, meditative air - that dedicated 50mm f2 macro lens makes anything look good!

Calculator Close-Up

Another Canon Close-up, testing out my friend Lisa's Canon EOS 350D that she kindly lent me when I was deciding which DSLR to go for.

Clothes Pegs Close-up

Testing out my friend Lisa's Canon EOS 350D that she kindly lent me when I was deciding which DSLR to go for.

Green Milk Crate (haiku)

patterns everywhere:
compostions waiting for
an eye to frame them

Dewey Decimal System

Remember this?? The card-board file system for finding out were books might be stored on the shelves in a Library... I didn't know these still existed, since the advent of Google. Nice to know an archaeological site like this has been preserved. State Library of NSW. Sydney Australia.

Dried Succulent Flowers (haiku)

end of summer fruits
ripen and compress their seeds
into DNA

Cactus Pin-Cusion

Another lunchtime meditation from the Annandale Garden Centre...

Stop & Smell the Roses...

A delicate China Rose n the front garden of the Uniting Church on Booth St Annandale.

Kitchen Buddha

Wishing you Peace and Harmony in the kitchen and in Life.

Duckweed (haiku)

abundant duckweed
floating on the surface of
a deep blue fishpond

Gumleaf (haiku)

following the path
up the steel steps to the tram
scattered with gum leaves

Objet d' Koala

The wet weekend and Cabin Fever made it imperative to get out and about yesterday - rain or no rain! Umbrellas up, cameras in hand, walking fast down the footpath in Balmain, we almost stepped on this little Koala badge - a found Objet d'Art.