While I was working in my large back garden I was delighted to come across these bugs playing in the dandelion. I love nature photography and rushed to get my camera. It was tricky to take as they kept crawling down the stem and hiding inside the ball.
Photographing wildlife especially birds is an passion of mine, albeit quite an expensive one at times. This image is of a rainbow lorikeet and they are regular visitors to our back garden, along with quite a few other birds, such as kookaburras, galahs, cockatoos, and the occasional king parrot.
It was taken at about 10 am on a fairly overcast day, but the colours of the rainbow lorikeet sitting one the flowering grevilleas really made up for any lack of sunshine that morning and brightened up my day.
I used a Canon D1 Mrk111 with a EF100-400mm f/45-56 lens, the aperture was set to f13 my ISO setting was 320 at a speed of 1/80 hand held.
This tulip was one of several that I planted in a pot on my doorstep back in Autumn. I enjoyed watching them break through the soil and grow over the months until they flowered in October.
I took close-ups of the flowers at different stages, from small green buds to browning petals. This one was splendid in full bloom.
It is always startling just how rapidly the Australian bush regenerates after a fire. This hakea pod burst open with its promise of new life amongst the still smouldering heath after a fire at Cape Wellington, Wilsons Promontory. The woody seed pod has clearly resisted the intense heat of the fire, protecting the delicate seed and releasing it onto a bed of ashy nutrients.
While fighting fire I always carried a Fuji Finepix e550 which has a surprisingly efficient close-up range and with which I snapped this picture.
In spring our beautiful patch of Adelaide Hills remnant bushland becomes a veritable catalogue of wildflowers of the Mount Lofty Ranges. On this October day I took my camera and tripod out to see what was in bloom and stumbled across a patch of Hand Flowers (Cheiranthera alternifolia), where the light was in just the right position.
The photo was taken with a Pentax K100D Super and a Sigma 18-200 lens. Settings were 1/350 sec @ f8, ISO 200, focal length 200 mm.
The drought has broken in this corner of Australia! Golden canola in full flower throughout the Wimmera area of Victoria not only adds sheer delight to the growers on their farms, but it also gives joy to all who pass through this landscape, as paddock after paddock display their colours of green and gold.
This photo was taken on our son’s farm in the Nhill area of Victoria. I used a Nikon D60 at 1/400s f/5.6 ISO 200 focal length 175mm.
On the first weekend in September I took the opportunity and flew to Hervey Bay for some whale watching. The Sunday was perfect and we were soon amongst our aquatic brethren, who were just as inquisitive and curious about us as we were about them.
This photograph records one of the most spectacular breaches the humpbacks performed for us. Just prior to us returning to Hervey Bay, as if to say farewell, one of the whales swam under the catamaran on the surface and loitered just off our bow so everyone could view this magnificent creature.
We live on an acre block on the outskirts of Rockhampton, Queensland, and we have many varieties of birds that visit our bird bath, which is under a velvet-leafed wattle tree. There are usually about 24 of these double bar finches and this one took off and flew into the window and knocked itself out.
I saved it from a larger bird and placed it in the bird house and kept an eye on it until it was able to fly away. It was quite happy to sit for a while, so I took advantage of the situation and captured this photo.
I used my Canon 400D with an 18 – 55mm lens.
The callistemon in my backyard in Rockhampton bloomed for the first time this year. I wanted to catch the feeling of the flower bursting into bloom so I used a 50 mm 1:1.4 lens (which gives a nice shallow depth of field) on my Nikon D40x camera.
The Pink Paper Daisy (Rhodanthe chiorocephaia ssp.rosea) is an exceptional subject for photography with bold and intense colours which stand out in full sun when using a macro setting or lens.
I took this photo at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney NSW where I had a choice of yellow, white or pink daisies to choose from.
I took this photo as I was walking from Cape to Cape in the south west of WA. The coastal trail was just so wonderful that my little Nikon CoolPix S3000 camera was rarely in the pocket. The result is great shots of flowers, rocks and this little guy, a bobtail goanna. He is a species of the blue tongue skink. I suggested he might move off the track and you can see his response – and I guess this is fair enough.
I don’t know what type of fern it was, but it was quite small and a lovely red flush in the new foliage. It was photographed in my Aunt’s garden in Brooklet, NSW north coast.
Nikon D200; Nikkor 50mm fixed lens; 2x teleconvertor + 3 & +2 close-up filter; f5.6 @ 1/125th ISO 200
After climbing to the top of a hill known as the Knoll Iron Range National Park , Cape York, this spider was observed repairing its web. It was very active and huge!
The photo was taken on an overcast warm day with a Canon 550 D and a 55-250mm telephoto Canon lens.
We have worked our little garden (10 m x 10 m) in our over-50s village to provide some vegies and fruit for us, and appropriate plants to attract as much of the abundant wildlife as possible. Four types of frogs, birds, roos, wallabies, koala, echidna, bandicoots, lizards, butterflies, and lots of bees visit us or share the yard. The grasshopper was on a frangapani.
The New England honeyeater, one of a pair, was seen searching for nectar, close to the dam face at Lake Eildon, Victoria, on a very windy and cloudy day at the beginning of spring. The slender branch of the tree that the bird is hanging from was recently growing on the shore, but due to recent heavy rain is now several yards from the shore and partially submerged under several feet of water.
It was quite amazing to see these trees and wattle trees in full flower both above and below the water with several species of birds working the trees. The end of the long drought in Victoria?
The picture is of a red-eyed tree frog, Litoria chloris, sleeping on a birds nest fern. The image was taken without the help of a tripod, and it is one of the few that I got a good focus of the frog.
The camera I used was a Nikon D80 with a 18mm-70mm Nikkor lens, which is more suited as a daylight lens and can make blue skies look amazing.
The orchards come alive in spring. The fragrance of the blossoms permeates the air, seducing the birds and the bees in their never ending quest for nectar and pollen. In this newly opened citrus blossom, the moist female ovule is surrounded by male stamens carrying pollen grains. They will fertilize the ovule, forming the next generation of seeds around which the fruit will form.
Canon EOS 400D, Tamron 90mm Macro lens, 1/100 sec/ISO400/f2.8
Getting up early in the morning has a real advantage, and I think this image is a fine example for that. I took this photo right in my backyard, and the quality of light captured in this image certainly can’t be achieved in a midday sun. My main subject and focus in this photo is simply the light and its reflections. I love how the bokeh highlights turned out and the painting-like quality of the background.
As always the case of macro photography, I had to shot few bursts as it is so easy to get out-of-focus pictures from your shaky hand. I shot quite a lot, and, after a fiddly selection process, this is probably the best one.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR, with EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens and a KR -1.5 filter. Shutter speed 1/200sec, aperture f/8.0, ISO 250.
Bee Happy.
I had not long purchased my new DSLR Nikon D5000 and was experimenting while visiting my parents’ place in the country. I tried out the different aperture priority settings and took about five shots of the bee, along with some butterflies too. I have also cropped it slightly to emphasise the bee. I have since tried to photograph more bees, realising how difficult it is when they are so busy!
Nikkor lens VR 55-200mm, focal length 200mm, 1/250s F/8 ISO 200, hand held
Home Topics Science & Environment Gallery: Readers photography on spring
The federal minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, signed a A$207 million commitment with the United States to support “Landsat Next”.
Total, partial, and penumbral – the different types of lunar eclipses can be confusing. Find out what each means, and how the phenomenon occurs in the first place.
The battle is on to save what’s left of one of Tasmania’s most endangered and intriguing eucalypts.
Our much loved calendars and diaries are now available for 2024. Adorn your walls with beautiful artworks year round. Order today.
From cuddly companions to realistic native Australian wildlife, the range also includes puppets that move and feel like real animals.