Tag Archives: purple

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: macro

Image

26
Close up shot of purple flower with mass petals and pale lilac stamen. Image: Su Leslie, 2015

“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” — Jeremy Bentham. Image: Su Leslie, 2016, edited with Snapseed.

Surrounded by the accumulated junk of a life lived so long in the same place, I’m beginning to feel a little besieged.

This has been my week for house-cleaning; emptying cupboards and drawers, un-stacking shelves and generally fossicking around to bring into the light stuff that we have acquired during our almost 16 year tenure in this house.

And oh my, there is a lot of it.

I’ve sorted clothes, books, business records, photographs, ‘spare’ crockery and glassware; I even ventured into the very back of the top shelf of the cupboard in the hall (after which I can say that, come the apocalypse, we’re sorted for tea-lights, plastic containers and wine glasses)!

While it is incredibly satisfying to reduce clutter, reclaim space and generally take a weight off the house’s foundations, I have been so engrossed in my task that I’ve hardly ventured outside.

So this week my contribution to Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge is a single shot of a pincushion flower; chosen to remind me that its ok to have a lot of something (in this case petals), as long as all the individual elements work harmoniously together.

I still think I can cull the tea-lights though.

 

 

 

On needing an infusion of colour

Image

12
Inside the greenhouses of the Wintergarden in Auckland, there is always colour and warmth. Photo: Su Leslie, 2013.

Inside the greenhouses of the Wintergarden in Auckland, there is always colour and warmth. Photo: Su Leslie, 2013.

It rained again overnight, and although there is some blue in the sky this morning, the Met Service is predicting heavy showers, hail and (for Auckland) low temperatures. So another grey day then — which makes Ailsa’s travel theme of “purple” very welcome. If I can’t find colour in the living world today, I can vicariously enjoy my favourite colour in photography.

I'm used to golden skies from my office window, so this took me by surprise. Photo: Su Leslie, 2014

I’m used to golden skies from my office window, so this took me by surprise. Photo: Su Leslie, 2014

The Wintergarden, Auckland War Memorial Museum. Photo: Su Leslie 2013

The Wintergarden, Auckland War Memorial Museum. Photo: Su Leslie 2013

And of course reality can always be modified to visualise an interior landscape. These sculptures have both appeared in my dreams lately, and playing with photo-editing apps has allowed me to externalise, and understand those dream landscapes.

Antony Gormley's 'The Angel of the North', as it sometimes appears in my dreams. Photo: Su Leslie, 2013.

Antony Gormley, ‘The Angel of the North’. Photo: Su Leslie, 2013.

void5

Ramon Robertson,’ Void.’ Photo: Su Leslie, 2014

If you’d like to see Aisla’s wonderful purple images, visit Where’s my Backpack. Here are some other bloggers’ interpretations of the challenge that I’ve enjoyed:

http://esengasvoice.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/travel-theme-purple/

http://loganbruin.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/travel-theme-purple/

http://shootngo.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/travel-theme-purple/

http://figliodelgiaguaro.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/travel-theme-purple/

http://nowathome.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/travel-theme-purple/

http://adventuresofmisshouse.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/travel-theme-purple/

http://jennysotherstuff.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/travel-theme-purple-amongst-other-colours-one-redeeming-feature/

http://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/travel-theme-purple/

http://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/five-shades-of-purple/

http://dauwpics.blogspot.be/2014/07/snel-nog-even-pootjes-wassen.html