nature

As I get older, I appreciate the natural world more and more and this is reflected in my photography and writing.

The colour brown

/ Su Leslie / 32 Comments

Crunchy Anzac biscuits and a cup of tea. Image: Su Leslie

Brown is not a colour I think of much when I’m taking photos, unless it’s autumn and I’m obsessing about falling leaves.

Image: Su Leslie

But it’s the colour of the month at Jude’s Life in Colour photo challenge. And when I looked in my photo archive, I found more than I’d expected.

There was food (naturally).

Image: Su Leslie

Image: Su Leslie

Image: Su Leslie

And art.

Stay, by Antony Gormley. One of two sculptures created for the city of Christchurch, NZ, post-2011 earthquake. Image: Su Leslie

Bernar Venet, '88.5° ARC x 8'. Seen at Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, Kaipara, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2015

88.5° ARC x 8, Bernar Venet, Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, Kaipara, NZ. Image: Su Leslie

(Detail) Tip, John Radford, Western Park, Ponsonby, NZ. Image: Su Leslie

Informal Still Life. Seen at Bushey Park, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie

And small treasures in the natural world.

Cicada shell. Image: Su Leslie

Driftwood, Castlecliff beach, Whanganui, NZ. Image: Su Leslie

Image: Su Leslie

If you’d like to join in (even belatedly like me), pop over to Travel Words and read Jude’s introduction.

Focus on the detail

/ Su Leslie / 34 Comments

“The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.” — Elizabeth Lawrence. Image: Su Leslie 2021

“Some people look at big things, and other people look at very small things, but in a sense, we’re all trying to understand the world around us.” — Roderick MacKinnon

I’m a detail kind of person. The kind who notices when pictures are hung a fraction off; who will unpick and re-sew a seam until it’s just right. The kind of person who not only owns plating tweezers, but actually uses them.

No surprise then that I love macro photography. Nor that a walk around my garden results in an abundance of close-up shots — but not one that shows the shape and structure of the garden itself. Though given that it’s (euphemistically) a “work in progress” — maybe that’s no bad thing.

Cosmos: the garden gift that keeps on giving. Image: Su Leslie 2021

Image: Su Leslie 2021

Image: Su Leslie 2021

Image: Su Leslie 2021

Image: Su Leslie 2021

New buds. Image: Su Leslie 2021

Beauty in decay. Image: Su Leslie 2021

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge | It’s a small world

Friday Flowers

First brush of summer

/ Su Leslie / 43 Comments
Pohutukawa flower. Image: Su Leslie 2020

Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) — often called New Zealand’s Christmas tree — produces masses of red flowers from almost white buds throughout summer. Today, the pohutukawa in my neighbourhood are mostly showing white buds. By this time next week, the trees will be thickly painted in feathery strokes of red.

Friday flowers