Tag: #lens-artists

Looking at mountains

Published on by bushboy37 Comments

The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #222: Mountains are Calling

I did wonder if I had many mountain landscape photos. I did a quick look around and found a few.

Maybe have a listen to my favourite mountain song

I love this view of Mt Vesuvius from Pompeii

Sometimes when heading home the mountains are tinged with blue and shrouded in fog

Cradle Mountain in Tasmania still with snow in October

Mount Wollumbin in the distance

It is a place of myths and legends. The mountain has always been a place of cultural and traditional significance to the Bundjalung people, a is the site for many ceremonies and initiation rites. In Aboriginal legend, Wollumbin was a giant bird, speared by a warrior. That fatal spear is still visible as a point on the summit. Another legend is that fighting warriors cause the lightning and thunder which is often observed in the area around Wollumbin.

My favourite place to rest and recharge. This was taken after the fires of 2019 showing the Gibraltar Ranges bald spots from Raspberry Lookout

Some days at Raspberry Lookout, the blue and an air of mystery makes me gasp

Of course there is always a sun setting on a mountain as the mountains are west from my place

There may be flowers

Published on by bushboy38 Comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #221: Flower Favourites and Why

Again another very hard photo challenge as it is what to post and how much is too much. I have followed Tina’s example and used tiling to show you the flowers that I enjoy so you won’t have endless scrolling to find a flower that may be of some interest for you. I apologise in advance for the deluge of photos

One of my favourite flowers in my garden is Pentas flowers. I have a couple of colours, a pink and a red which seems to be a dark red at times as well as a deep red, maybe depending on the season. Why do I enjoy Pentas in my garden. It is the insects who come in to enjoy the flowers as well.

I have to include the various Grevilleas. I love their shape and form plus they too bring nature into my garden.

I have selected these flowers as I love Gazanias and Roses. These are childhood memories from my Mums garden along with Geraniums. She had some wonderful red Geraniums and I haven’t found any of the older variety. One day I’ll see some in a garden and have to knock on the door and ask for a cutting. There was a strip of Gazanias between the front fence and the footpath and always had flowers. On the house side of the fence were the Roses plus a lot of other flowers.

Of course I couldn’t not include that many Australian Native flowers that grow on my place and in lots of places I go. Enjoy my bit of Australia for you.

The Goannas are out

Published on by bushboy39 Comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #220: One Subject Three Ways

Today is a very warm day. I was in the garden taking a few photos – yeah I know, most unusual – when I heard a bit of a rustling in the undergrowth. I knew exactly what it was. A Goanna. I went into the garden and as they always do, the Goanna ran up the nearest tree.

This one is a small one but is the first Goanna for Summer. He lay as flat as possible against the trunk so I wouldn’t notice him. I went onto the verandah so I was level with him to grab a couple of photos.

I noticed there was a red spot on his face. Goannas always have ticks on them so I had to get a closer photo just to see if it was a tick.

Just as I suspected, it is a tick. He didn’t seem to have any other ticks that I could see.

Going on a treasure hunt

Published on by bushboy25 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #219: Treasure Hunt

Tina wants us to search for:-

  • A pet or pets (yours or someone else’s)
  • The moon or the sun (extra credit for both in one image)
  • Clouds (extra credit if you also include rain or snow)
  • A reflection
  • A child (extra credit if with other family members)
  • An umbrella (extra credit if you include a person using it)
  • A truck (extra credit if you include the driver or what the truck is hauling)
  • Autumn foliage (extra credit if it’s something that only blooms in the fall)
  • Something fun you found on a walk

Teddie enjoying the morning sun

I love Our Moon

Clouds with rain in the distance – extra credit photo 🙂

One of my favourite reflection photos

A little bee riding her horse at the Glen Innes show in the dress-up parade – extra credit photo as she is with her Mum 🙂

Models walking through Rome and I have no idea what they were advertising – extra credit as they are using their umbrellas 🙂

In the fire truck on their way to a fire or emergency – extra credit as you can see the driver 🙂

I don’t really have any Autumn leaves as I don’t really have Autumn here. These leaves are Autumn leaves in Lyon

Something I found on a walk on my place after the fires. First time I have ever seen Purple Fringe Lillies here.

It was fun going through my folders on this treasure hunt. A great idea Tina

Some of my favourite sun photos

Published on by bushboy40 Comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #123: Here Comes the Sun

Whether it is a muted sky in the morning as the sun rises

it is lovely to stroll along the beach

Perhaps the sun has a fiery start so it is nice to chill in the cool water

The suns rays burst forth showering a rainbow of colours

or maybe is is time to enjoy the warmth while drying your feathers after a bath

or sit against a warming brick wall in the morning to wake and get ready to sing in the day

or just laze about, finding a shady spot in the heat of the day

The last light as the sun is about to go down for the day

Maybe ending as it started with light, gentle colours

or a showy colourful finish

and sometimes ending in a blaze of glory

Letting you into my groove

Published on by bushboy49 Comments

The Lens-Artists Challenge #211: What’s Your Photographic Groove

What’s my photographic groove? I don’t have one particular theme except for showcasing the flora and fauna of Australian and quite often from my place.

The native bees here are lovely bees, they don’t sting and are small. The Blue-banded bee and the Teddy Bear Bees are favourites.

The wonderful birds are probably my all time favourite things to photograph. All of these are from my place except for the Golden-headed Cisticola on the barbed wire fence.

I love to have butterflies in my garden. The Blue Triangle Butterfly was one that was never here. When I first saw one many years ago, I made it one of my photographic quests to get a photo, which took a while as they are very shy butterflies. I finally managed to get one. The photo here. A few years later, they turned up in my garden

Of course I have to include the animals which are unique to Australia. I did have Koalas who used my place a s trail to get from one area to another. I never saw any but could here there calls at night. Since the fires of 2019, I haven’t seen or heard any. I did often see Dingoes or heard them calling in the night. Again they have disappeared from the landscape. I always have Red-necked Wallabies in the garden but they too are in reduced numbers. The big Eastern Grey Kangaroos used to travel through the bottom of my place where the bush isn’t as thick but never around the house. There are always Brush-tailed Possums as well.

I could not go without leaving a few native flowers, Bottlebrush, a Purple Fringe Lily, a Paperbark flower and Eucalypt flowers with a Brown Honeyeater atop.

I hope it was fun peeking into bushboys world

Just these ones

Published on by bushboy42 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge: Picking Favourites

This was a difficult challenge. Most people would expect that I would choose a bird photo or perhaps flowers but this time I have gone into not what makes this a great photo but why.

Sarah provided a brief that was quite prescriptive wanting to know: – “Tell us a bit about each of your three photos please. Where you took it and when. Why you are pleased with it and have chosen it for this challenge. Does it evoke some special memories that influenced your choice of it as a favourite? Has it won a competition perhaps? Or is it simply a shot you love and are pleased to have taken. It doesn’t matter, by the way, if you’ve shared it before. The best images are worth seeing more than once, after all.”

Earlier today I was looking at the posts of people I follow and from Ann-Christine She wrote “…I can see that I photograph more with my heart than with camera and lens….” This resonated with me and I commented “I must agree that when you take a photo with your heart, it shines through the lens, captured forever. Looking back that sense of heart glows ever bright remembering the moment”

This first photo is a place of calm and is one of my favourite places to go. The peace and looking over the rest of the Gibraltar Range from Raspberry Lookout. I am lucky that it is not far from my place. This is a place where my heart does feel at peace and the photos I take shine through.

Coming back into the urban environment, I was sitting in the Byron Bay Bakery where the windows are almost floor to ceiling with seating waiting for my bestie. In front of the bakery the street plantings are Lilli Pilli bushes which at the time were flowering. The colour of the flowers against the grey of the street took my eye.

Always with camera at hand, I focused to get the photo I saw and then just then, what could be called a zen moment, a Stingless Native Bee cruised over to check out the flower. Stingless Native Bees are about 10mm in length. A macro photo using telephoto with the camera just set on auto.

I love sunset photos when the sky is special. This photo takes in another part of my life as I live in the bush or countryside and cattle are in nearly all of the farms around. A silhouette against a coloured sky makes a strong image. Sometimes cows tend to pose at the right time in the right place.

OK I am sneaking in just one more so I can break the “rules”

It is not often that a Moon Flower opens in the Full Moon as they are supposed to do but when they do they are spectacular. I cannot remember the camera settings, probably hand held night scene function on my camera. I had my bestie as my assistant and she held the torch so I might get that just right photo

Dali and me

Published on by bushboy40 Comments

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #209: Surreal

I have loved the art works of Salvador Dali since I was a teenager. He led me on a path of discovery of Surrealism in art with artists like Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy and Frieda Kahlo among others.

“The power of Surrealism within visual arts allowed artists to unleash the power of their subconscious mind in order to create artworks of absurd imagery, that were both somewhat amusing and menacing at the same time. This allowed Surrealism artists to create types of contradictions within their paintings that were not previously seen in the art world. What made the movement so revolutionary was that it was not limited to any specific medium or style, rather, it spanned all disciplines that were able to manifest the eerie side of reality.” https://artincontext.org/surrealist-artists/

Whilst in Europe I was lucky enough to visit a couple of Dali galleries, one in Barcelona and his main theatre museum in Figueres, with it’s egg shaped walls.

Inside I was in wonder at the number of art works

Most of the best known, The Persistence of Memory etc were in other galleries around the world. The one that grabbed my attention first as a teenager was Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) so of course when looking for a calendar in 2019 I found a Dali one.

Dali also did quite a number of statues and figurines.

In the museum you enter a gallery level and look down on this sculpture and wonder what it is. Once at ground level you can see the whole idea behind the work.

Of course one of my favourites combines to two things I like, Dali’s art and elephants. I have a framed copy of Swans Reflecting Elephants on my wall

Which brings me to the part about me. For quite a while now I have been contributing to Jez’s Water Water Everywhere by taking photos of reflections in water and turning them into abstracts, perhaps they could be seen as surreal?

One of my favourite things to photograph is nature especially birds. This is combination of water, reflection and a Pelican which is unaltered, just as I saw it. A Surreal Pelican?

Nature does present a chance to see what can be done with a spiders web and imagination

I hope you enjoyed a wander through my thoughts of art and my photos.