When Water Holds the Sky

Reflections are always fun to work with, and still waters are that perfect mirror for the bright sky. Lakes are, by their nature, spectacular fodder for photographers interested in landscape studies. Lakes don’t have to be large to deliver the visual goods—this one is small indeed. Here a palm reflects among the lily pads at Himeji Gardens, on Adelaide’s South Terrace. The Japanese gardens, created to celebrate the city’s twin status with Himeji, are a haven of peace and always a delight to visit. I got this frame during a visit with friends on June 12^th, 2011—cool weather here in the south, when afternoon sun vied with dark clouds in the east. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

A Designed Landscape

Designer landscapes are nothing new: they were doing it in Tudor times. But the visual impact of such a place—often today merely considered landscape gardening and dismissed as something unimportant—can be amazing. On January 25th, 2023, I paid a visit to Carrick Hill, the famous early 20^th century mansion in the Adelaide Hills, overlooking the city and plain, and the entire grounds are designed to compliment and interact with the house. Views abound, and not just outward—this is a view of the mansion through a veritable keyhole in the now-well-grown trees. It’s an example of expert design given its head, where the undulation of the land features strongly in the layout, and the altitude allows lush growth of northern, deciduous species despite the Australian summer extremes. The place is well worth a visit! Here, it’s a simple shot where composition is everything—the POV looks back at the house through the frame of the trees, and is as picturesque as a painting. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

 

Looking Down on a Rainforest

 

Apologies for the dearth of posts this month—I’ve been concentrating on other tasks and it slipped my mind!

One can almost feel the humidity, a sticky heat surrounding these tropical broad-leaf trees—but the warmth was a relief. The structures amongst them are a giveaway: this is the Wintergardens in Sunderland, a cold, northern city, in the grey November of 2011. I was my fourth UK trip when I wandered through the Museum and its associated hothouse, before taking a stroll in Mowbray Park behind them. The lighting conditions were grey and flat, and this image is enhanced to bring up colour and contrast in Irfanview. It was an interesting aside from the grey streets, and the only other tropical house I’ve been in besides that Victorian classic in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Momentary Sun

The sun finding a way through the overcast elevates moody, murky images into clear, colourful pieces with an upbeat feel. I snagged this frame in the gardens of the York Museum in the November of 2011, on my fourth UK trip for the purposes of presenting at a conference at the University of Sunderland. York has been a favourite place since childhood and I often tried to swing by when I was in the northeast. After thick weather for much of the trip, the appearance of sunshine during my afternoon in York was a welcome change, and I was lucky enough to be among the gardens and ruins of the medieval St Mary’s Abbey. The place offered interesting compositions, and the light made it all the more worthwhile. Squared up with custom rotation; minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Colour Therapy

A couple of days past the solstice of winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, things have been pretty cold—sunny days before rain is due, but some very cold nights. So at this time of year I thought it would be nice to post an absolute contrast, a spring photo . This blossom is on a tree in the front garden, frame grabbed on the 8^th of September, 2017. Basic tweaks only. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Depth Perspective

Here is an interesting telephoto depth compression. This is the Adelaide city centre seen at max zoom from the gardens of the Carrick Hill mansion in Springfield, above town, taken on January 25^th, 2023. It was a pleasant, warm afternoon, just right for a picnic in the grounds, and the gardens were wonderfully photogenic. Views out over the city and sea certainly underline why the well-to-do would choose to build up there. This shot was simple enough, it was the lineup of the foreground foliage and the nine kilometres-distant city towers that cried out to be captured. The image was squared-up using the fine rotation tool. Minor adjustment to contrast, colour and sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

In the Garden of Calm

This is another frame from Himeji Garden, Adelaide, South Australia, which I captured on October 20^th, 2016, when I took a day in town with my sister in law, on a visit Down Under. Nothing clever from a photographic aspect here other than composition perhaps—just a beautiful place that’s always so nice to see. Minimal enhancement. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Reflections in a Tranquil Pond

After thirteen and a half years, “Digital Kosmos” is alive and well. New posts will be appearing irregularly, so check back for a wealth of photography from Australia and overseas!

Here we see one of Adelaide's best-kept secrets, Himeji Gardens, on South Terrace, part of the South Parklands. Adelaide is twinned with many cities around the world, including Himeji, Japan, and these gardens celebrate that relationship with a traditional Japanese water garden, including a dry Zen garden, a bridge over the pond, bamboo wall architecture, and many imported species. One can enjoy quiet moments here, as the surroundings encourage a contemplative spirit, and a half hour on an airy afternoon is known to recharge one's batteries for coping city life once more. I took this image on the 9^th June, 2012. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Trying For Motion-Streaking

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This is a simple effect with a manual camera. In the old days I would put the camera on the tripod at it's lowest height, focus in, then set the aperture to F16, forcing the shutter speed out to half a second, then the motion of the water would streak into solid bars of soft-edged light, which is of course how the famous Steve Parish creates those amazing water images in his celebrated landscape photography. Digital cameras are another matter, and this was purely experimental: was the light level in the Flinders Medical Centre rainforest garden low enough to force a long exposure without going to aperture priority? Almost! The result, while not quite the arty streaking it might have been, is certainly engaging: the crystal clarity of the wet rock texture, and the individual droplets of water catching the light. December, 2007; sharpened and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Focus on a Stem

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Here is a trick easy with a manual SLR but infuriatingly difficult with a full auto system: focusing on a wispy, insubstantial subject rather than the material further away filling the rest of the frame. With a manual, crank the focus ring until you have what you want, nothing could be simpler, but with an autofocus system it's often pot-luck as to precisely where in your composition focus will fall. As with the aircraft shot published recently, the chip has here successfully chosen the foreground object as the focal target, creating that wonderfully 'arty' feel, as the soft focus de-emphasises the background. This shot was taken in the rainforest garden at Flinders Medical Centre, south of Adelaide, in December, 2007, and was sharpened and colour- and contrast-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Natural Light, Controled Landscape

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Afternoon light from a low sun does amazing things with silhouettes, even when the light is indirect. This shot was taken in the gardens of Pannet Park Museum, Whitby, UK, in November 2006. My camera batteries were about to expire in a few shots' time, compelling me to call it a day, which was just as well as the evening was going to be cold, and I would return to photograph the museum and its contents the next day. But the last few shots I got before the batteries died had much to recommend them. The museum stands on the brow of a hill, with magnificent Georgian houses on the lower slope, and newer estates on the hills beyond, and this shot looks westward toward such an estate. The houses are hazy in the late light: the sun burns them out, while gently silhouetting the trees in the museum gardens. Match this with the 'controlled landscape' of classic English garden design, and you have an atmospheric and appealing image. Sharpness and colour were adjusted slightly. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Life in the Waters

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Life finds its niche anywhere, and calm waters will always throng with organisms. This simple shot looks into the pond at the Flinders Medical Centre rainforest garden, one of Adelaide's little-known treasures. Plants installed to fill out the ecosystem are complimented by the natural algae that provides food for the many ducks that use the waterway, and a high afternoon lighting angle sets the flare of the sun among the plants that depend on it for life at the base of the food chain. The chip did an excellent job of capturing the background while nestling the sunflare into the organic broth. The picture was sharpened and the colour intensified slightly. December, 2007. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Focus and contrast: red hot pokers imitate art

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Once again, life imitates art. These red hot pokers are trying valiantly to be a screen print! They're a marvelous splash of color in the landscape of late summer, downunder, where the dust and "brown lawns" can become a little jading and overwhelming after a long, parched summer. Getting the shot was tricky, but far from impossible. It's a question of not letting the camera focus anywhere it wants to. Automatic focus is fine and dandy, but for an image like this -- click the camera over to manual and make sure it gives you what you want. Photo my Mel, 2009.

The dome of the sky

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I'm reminded of that verse from the Rubaiyat, "And that inverted bowl we call the sky,/ Whereunder crawling cooped we live and die,/ Lift not thy hands to it for help,/ For it rolls on impotently, as thou or I." A glass sky -- glass dome. Marvelous "vanishing-point" perspective, and such color saturation. In fact, it's the Madagascar house at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens! The shot was easy to capture ... if you don't count the panting and perspiring! It's HOT and HUMID in there ... the plants love it. Every life form inside is from equatorial Africa. Photo by Mel, 2009.

MY branch!

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I do like to take parrot pictures. Maybe because there are so many wild ones around here and I never saw them back in Alaska. This was taken early in the morning and the sun was just up. The sun was shining directly at the landing cockatoo. I was actually taking pictures of the little rainbow lorikeet that's flying away and tripped the shutter right after this big bloke jumped from a branch about 3 feet behind this one. Guess he just really wanted his picture taken. the Fuji S6500fd does quite good work in these conditions, and I didn't even have the shutter set for high speed pictures. It was manual focus, but everything else was on automatics, and no colour fixing was down in the computer. Very handy camera. Photo by dave.

Home sweet home

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On, to be in England, now that April's here ... Except, it's downunder in the wintertime! How lush, how green this country can be, it only some rain would fall. You find these little hideaways all over the Adelaide Hills: a large house sitting on a hectare or two (anything up to five acres), behind dense hedges ... the "cottage in the woods" rather than the "cabin," but the principle is the same. The real magic of this image is in the framing and cropping, and later, in the enhancement, which brought up the color and flattened the contrast. The galvanized metal roof was glaring in the sun, overpowering the whole image. Photo by Mel, 2006.

Alien beauty

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It has the look of an alien species ... perhaps a specimen brought back to earth from a distant and very different planet. The impression is powerful, and gives you a little taste of what the reaction of Captain Cook's crew must have been to the flora and fauna they encountered in Australia. This was indeed an alien world. You're viewing the whole image here, the full frame -- no cropping was needed; and I haven't done anything to the colors, brightness or contrast. This is that rare photo -- perfect as it is. This Australian native flowering shrub (apologies -- I can't identify it for you; not a warratah ... Banksia of some kind?) was photographed at Wittunga Botanical Gardens, in South Australia, in 2007. Photo by Jade.

Echoes of colonial days

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The architecture is still pretending this is the nineteenth century, and with those colors, that tropical brilliance, this would have to be a scene in "the colonies" -- right? Actually, it's the South Australian Museum building on a hot, bright day in February, but almost every part of this shot could just as easily be some location in India, circa 1890! The shot was easy to get, tricky to enhance: the challenge was to get detail to show through in the darker areas and yet not wash out the brilliant blue of the sky. Photo by Mel, 2008.

Winter in the rose garden at Willunga

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The magic of the computer and of Irfanview, particularly) are at work in this picture. It was a winter's day ... cold, quite cloudy, windy, dull, with rain in patches. Yet you'd think this was a summer's day, from the contrast and color saturation! The tip-off that tells you it's winter is way over on the left: there's one deciduous tree in the image ... and it's skeletal, not a leaf on it. The rest are various kinds of Australian gum trees, which don't drop their foliage in winter -- in fact, they shred their bark in summer! This is the rose garden at Willunga, though the roses had just been given a hard prune when this pictue was taken: cut back your roses this way and it's ten weeks to a riot of new blooms! Photo by Jade, 2007.