Ancient Landscape

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Staying with the dinosaur theme from the last image, here is an ancient landscape: Fern Gully, at the Loftier Botanic Gardens, east of Adelaide. This nook in the hills catches warmth and holds it to enable an island of highland rainforest to survive amongst the native eucalypt forest, creating a very Mesozoic feel to the place. This shot was an exercise in composition, finding just the right angle at which to capture the feeling of the spot, the natural composition of the trees and the path, which somehow never 'felt' the same through the viewfinder as they looked to the eye. The image was sharpened 5% only. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Fern Gully

That's really what this place is called -- a cleft in the hills in the Botanic Gardens just below the summit of Mount Lofty, east of Adelaide. It's a slice of cool rainforest that exists in this somehow sheltered spot, where ferns grow in abundance, both ground-living and massive tree-ferns. It's like walking into the Jurassic, you're waiting for the dinosaurs to go by! The shot was a technical no-brainer: composition was the important part, the chip would do the rest. It did a good job capturing everything from densest shadow to burned-out highlights. The layering of light, colour and depth have almost a sense of classic artwork composition. Sharpness and colour were enhanced slightly. April, 2009; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.