The colour pink

Tulip petals, multiple exposure shot. Image: Su Leslie

Pink is the colour of the month at Jude’s Life in Colour photo challenge.

Pink is often consdered a calming colour; associated with love, kindness, and femininity. A by-word for all things romantic, feminine and girly.

Yet interestingly, in the 19th century, pink was considered a colour more appropriate for boys; a childish version of the “masculine” colour red.

My photo archives are full of pink-in-nature (yeah, I love photographing flowers), but I’m challenging myself to look beyond my obvious. So here’s my pot pourri of pinks; foodie things, arty things, a sunrise, found objects and some photo-experiments; in-camera and with PhotoShop.

Dried rosebuds for a tisane. Image: Su Leslie

Putting out the best china. Image: Su Leslie

Lux Festival of Lights, Wellington, NZ. Image: Su Leslie

Eco-print; eucalyptus leaf on silk. Image: Su Leslie

Door knocker, seen in Bordeaux, France. Image: Su Leslie

Out of reach. Image: Su Leslie

Seeing double. Multiple exposure shot of pohutukawa leaves. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Mangere sunrise. Auckland, NZ. Image: Su Leslie

Image: Su Leslie

Image: Su Leslie

Give it a whirl; making the troll dizzy with PhotoShop. Image: Su Leslie

If you’d like to join in, pop over to Travel Words and read Jude’s introduction.

The colour green

Fern frond. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Green is the colour of the month at Jude’s Life in Colour photo challenge.

It’s a colour heavily encumbered with association; denoting renewal, nature, harmony, freshness, and the environment — while at the same time being associated with money, greed and jealousy.

Seen from space, New Zealand looks like a series of small jade islands in the vast Pacific. It would be easy to fill a post with the landscapes and flora familiar to me, but instead I’ve sought green in other realms of life.

Food for example (unexpected I know!)

Eat your greens. Image: Su Leslie

Feijoas. Image: Su Leslie

Making tarragon vinegar. Image: Su Leslie

Mint slice al fresco. Image: Su Leslie

And of course art …

Glass chandelier. Image: Su Leslie

Art class. Image: Su Leslie

Light sculpture. Image: Su Leslie

Taking it outside. Fence at artist’s studio. Image: Su Leslie

And life’s small treasures

Vintage water glasses. Image: Su Leslie

A kiwi classic, Fun Ho! toy truck. Image: Su Leslie

The intersection of art and nature. Image: Su Leslie

Morning walk. Image: Su Leslie

If you’d like to join in, pop over to Travel Words and read Jude’s introduction.

The colour brown

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

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.

Delicate

Milkweed seeds, dressed in their silken floss. Image: Su Leslie 2017

When you watch a milkweed seed pod burst and scatter its tiny dancing seeds to the wind, it is easy to understand how nature balances the strong and the delicate, and finds finds the most elegant of solutions to the problem of continued existence.

Ragtag Daily Prompt | delicate

What really takes my breath away …

Muriwai beach, Auckland. Walk far enough and you can almost ignore the tour bus parties destroying the rock pool eco-systems with their sunscreen, body lotions and general stupidity. Image; Su Leslie 2019

I live in a country that earns quite a sizeable portion of its living out of being breathtakingly beautiful.

It is true that these days human impacts on land and water are beginning to show, and we’re increasingly like a hung-over media celeb, relying on Photoshop to pixel over the cracks. But it’s still relatively easy to turn a corner or crest a hill and find a vista so beautiful you can be forgiven if you forget to breathe.

I wouldn’t say I’ve become inured to such beauty, but if I’m honest, what really takes my breath away these days is the appalling ease with which my fellow New Zealanders (and some of the paid guests we’re taking in to help pay the bills) feel it’s ok to desecrate our environment. Apart from the terrible damage inflicted on landscapes, waterways, eco-systems and wildlife, it’s biting the hand that feeds.

This is death by a thousand cuts; dumping litter, over-fishing, clearing forests to create dairy farms, freedom campers who (literally) leave their shit behind, people who turn every available patch of grass on a beach reserve into a de facto car park because someone else did it first, a national mindset that says dairy farming and tourism are GOOD FOR GROWTH and let’s not look too closely at the negative impacts … the list goes on.

As always, the prescribed treatment for my chronic environmental grump is to get out the door and connect with the little miracles of nature that also take my breath away.

Pohutukawa flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2018

Bee and blossom. Image: Su Leslie 2017

Redwoods Tree Walk, Rotorua. Image; Su Leslie 2019

Exposing the inner workings. Eroded sea-shell. Image: Su Leslie 2018

Punga (silver fern) fronds. Image: Su Leslie 2019

Posted to the Ragtag Dail Prompt | breathtaking

The butterfly effect

Newly emerged Monarch butterfly dries its wings before taking off. Image: Su Leslie 2017

“Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional.” — Liz Vassey

In nature, Vassey’s words are particularly true. Whole eco-systems can be compromised by disruption to even the smallest part.

In 1800 Johann Gottlieb Fichte noted that “you could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole”.

Edward Lorenz later described this phenomenon as the butterfly effect.

Monarch caterpillars. Image: Su Leslie 2017

Monarch butterfly emerging from chrysalis. Image: Su Leslie 2017

Scientists now believe that Earth is experiencing a potentially catastrophic loss of biodiversity — with insect species being especially at risk. (See Science Direct article)

Image: Su Leslie 2018

Image: Su Leslie 2018

Diminishing numbers of bees and butterflies have caused widespread concern, and gardeners around the world consciously grow plant species to feed and support these creatures.

But, while gardeners may not like them, snails and other less glamorous creatures are necessary too — consuming rotting vegetation and providing food for other species like birds, lizards and mammals.

Starfish are regarded as a “keystone species” in marine ecosystems — but are sensitive to both marine pollution and water temperatures.

Starfish, seen clinging to a rock on the Coromandel Coast, NZ. Image: Su Leslie 2018

The loss of any part of nature’s elegant and beautiful system is a tragedy in itself, but the consequences reach far beyond any single extinction, threatening the whole Earth.

It seems that humans have the power (at least for now) to protect the life-forms that remain (including our own), and reverse some of the damage done. But we’d better be quick.

Posted to Lens Artist’s Photo Challenge | nature

Wordless Wednesday

Fern frond; seen on the Cascades path, Waitakere Ranges, Auckland, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

On birthdays, bugs and being grateful

Lily stamen. Image: Su Leslie, 2017. Shot with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 IS USM macro lens

Well the election gods haven’t (so far — hung parliament) come through with the new government I wanted for my birthday, AND I’ve managed to spend the last 36 hours feeling utterly miserable from a gastro-bug-thingy , BUT …

… the Big T floored me with a particularly thoughtful and wonderful birthday gift.

I’ve been dithering for ages about buying a macro lens, and now I am the ecstatic owner of a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 IS USM macro lens. I’m a bit hopeless with technical terminology, but even from my first experiments, I can tell this lens is seriously cool.

I have no idea what these are, but I found them growing out of punga (silver tree fern) logs in the Waitakere Ranges. The tallest stem was about 5cm. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

Otherworldly. Unknown micro-plant found growing in punga logs, Waitakere Ranges, Auckland, NZ. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

As my interest in photography has grown, I’m turning my lens more and more on nature, and particularly on the tiny details. In a world that I find increasingly — well, scary — I am comforted and sustained by the beauty and resilience of the smallest life forms.

And by the love of the good people like the Big T. And not just for the awesome gift — I’m even more grateful for his thoughtful compassion and nursing skills — especially at 3am when I’m sick and grumpy and, frankly, stink.

Friday flowers

More Manuka. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

DP Photo Challenge: structure

Structures of life. Image: Su Leslie, 2017

All life is dependent on a myriad of tiny structures, combining to create forms which interact with others. 

From the strong, almost transparent wings of a bee, to the plants they feed on and pollinate, if we destroy just one structure, we put the whole system at risk.

Daily Post Photo Challenge | Structure