Pandanus in the Sun

Pandanus in the Sun, originally uploaded by Meremail.

This is the Pandanus tree, and they are very common in Australia, mostly in the beach area where they thrive.

This particular transplanted tree (about 5-6m high) is in a garden adjacent to the Brisbane River.

I wanted to capture the sun immediately behind the trunk to give it that sunblasted look, so I took 3 exposure bracketed shots (+/- 2 f-stops) and used Photomatix to generate the HDR image but didn’t want to over enhance the HDR result.

This was then edited in Photoshop Elements where the clouds were enhanced to give more contrast with the sky, and I lifted the dark light levels enough to bring some details back into the foreground of the trunk to take away the silhouette effect.

Clivea Flower

Clivea Flower, originally uploaded by Meremail.

Clivia miniata
Native to Natal, South Africa.
Clivias were named after Lady Charlotte Florentina Clive, Duchess of Northumberland, who was the granddaughter of Robert Clive, better known as Clive of India.

Beam Me Up Scottie

Beam Me Up Scottie, originally uploaded by Meremail.

I wanted to post another shot of one of the light stands at the Brisbane Woolloongabba Cricket grounds. The post processing has created a slight showering effect in the light cast.

This is my favourite, and shows the extraordinary amount of light that comes out of this tower, 1 of 4 around the grounds.

While the crowd was going wild at the gladiators playing football inside, I was driving around the streets outside trying to get a good vantage point for this shot.

View On Black

This extract is from the Gabba website
The Gabba lights are environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The lights are ‘neighbourhood friendly’, being designed to minimise ’spill’ outside the playing field. They have internal louvres to minimise spill and glare and each individual light has been carefully aimed to light a specific part of the playing field.

Furthermore, the headframes are tapered, curved and angled downwards to concentrate the light on the playing field. The Gabba lights have only half of the spill-lighting levels of the MCG,

There are four different levels of illumination:

* Colour TV/match play
* Training
* Patron exit
* Safe working level for staff (cleaners, etc.)

Extensive neighbourhood consultation was conducted to ensure minimum impact on nearby residents.

The lighting controls were converted from manual to computer controlled using radio signals to each tower and each tower has some hot restart lights which illuminate within two seconds of being switched on lighting the area to the safety level. The balance of the lights will come back on after a cooling down period.

A Blonde Moment

A Blonde Moment, originally uploaded by Meremail.

DISCLAIMER: I want it known up front that this wasn’t my idea, and I was pressured into it.
When suggested to me by a certain daughter who shall remain nameless, I shunned the idea because it might alienate all my blonde contacts. But eventually I succumbed to pressure and just had to do it.

2 shots, 2nd one taken just with the light hard against the wall, and then overlayed some of the light shot onto the main image and softly erased and blended.

Confluence

Confluence, originally uploaded by Meremail.

Haven’t heard the word. Well confluence is mainly defined as the coming together of 2 bodies of water, and more generally ” flowing or running together; junction” and this may be the reason Brisbane artist Daniel Templeman named his 65m long concrete and plate aluminium artwork “Confluence” which dominates the entrance to the Brisbane Magistrates Court, where social recalcitrants “come together” with the legal fraternity.

He has described it as representative of a “notion associated with the judicial experience; that life presents obstacles which are either seen as overwhelming or resolvable. The work begins with a sense of calm, building up intensity towards the ‘obstacle’ before penetrating it and returning to the ‘resolved’ state.” or in laymans terms “The rolling wave of metal bursting through the so called obstacle before reaching its resolution”

How about that. You learn something everyday. It looks fabulous Big On Black, if I might say so myself

Enter The Dragon

Enter The Dragon, originally uploaded by Meremail.

This little Dragon Fly came to visit today, and did a pose for me.

Interesting bits from Wikipedia -

Dragonflies typically eat mosquitoes, midges, and other small insects like flies, bees, and butterflies. They are therefore valued as predators, since they help control populations of harmful insects. Dragonflies are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs”, are aquatic. Dragonflies do not normally bite or sting humans, though they will bite in order to escape, if grasped by the abdomen.

They capture their prey by clasping them in legs studded with spikes. Prey can not escape by diving away because dragonflies always attack from below.

The dragonfly’s marvellous ability to dart sideways, upwards, hover, and instantly change direction, is due to impressive design features. The creature has two sets of many-veined, long, rigid wings which beat alternately. (When one set is up, the other is down.) This gives it excellent aerodynamic efficiency, and the independent operation of each wing provides precise flight control. The wings beat 1,600 or more times a minute.

Not surprisingly, the muscles which operate a dragonfly’s wings comprise about one-quarter of its total weight. These powerful synchronized wings can propel the insect at speeds estimated at 50 kilometres an hour (30 miles per hour) or more, sometimes for long distances. Dragonflies have been known to migrate more than 300 kilometres across water.

Watch the Snake

Watch the Snake, originally uploaded by Meremail.

I was working in our Sydney office for 3 days which is located in a site called World Square.

It is an enormous collection of high rise buildings for offices, apartments and a hotel and retails shops, all interconnected via a plaza on different levels. The whole complex covers a complete city block.

The red coloured sculpture is a large snake like metallic piece that is quite impressive to see, and has a wonderful colour.

This view is looking through to adjacent apartments that are still being constructed in the adjacent city block.

Brisbane City by the River

Did you bump the FIRE button Komrade, originally uploaded by Meremail.

I overexposed the shots so that I reduced the shadows on the east side of the buildings as I had a low westerly sun. Then when I edited them the sky was, of course, way over exposed and I couldn’t use it as it was.
So I did a single exposure tone mapping in Photomatix to improve the highlights, but still thought it looked like a nuclear bomb had exploded in the western suburbs, so I added a pink-red blush with a gradient filter to the sky so that it looked more like a nuclear blast.

I really liked the overall effect of the colours of the buildings, as it has a slightly surreal image to it, and interestingly one of the comments rightly asked is it a model city. I am sometimes called a model citizen, but it isn’t a model city.

So always look at turning a blemish into a feature.