I think I have a theme going here

iso 100, f 5.6, ss 1/125

Here is another one. These flowering Gums are only quite small trees so around here they are used as street trees a fair bit. We probably take them for granted. These pretty ones are mainly native to Western Australia, tomorrow I'll post some more typical Gum tree flowers (like the ones in my backyard). Thank you for all the comments. Chris I have tried the wide aperture, up close shot here. I wish I had a macro lens. I probably should have used my 50mm, as my other lenses have a max of f4 (just looked at the numbers, I zoomed, so max f5.6). I like the curve of the stems at the bottom, but I'm not sure if they are too distracting. Should I crop the bottom half off the pic or leave it as is?

Another Flowering gum

iso 100 , f 5.6, ss 1/125

This is another flowering Gum. I think pretty much all Eucalyptus Trees (Gum Trees) have flowers, just some are more spectacular than others.
I'm still thinking of those 6 weird things.

Flowering gum

iso 800, f 5.6, ss 1/500 sec

There are some beautiful eucalyptus trees in flower here at the moment. You will be seeing a lot of them during this week. This one is just around the corner from my house. I have been watching it of the past month hoping the flowers would last long enough for this weeks challenge.

I have been tagged by Jan and Sara. 6 weird things about me - hummm....I might have to think about this one.

Thank you for all the comments on yesterday's pics. I was thinking of all you guys in the snow when I posted the beach pic. It was such a lovely day here. The water was even fairly warm. The cricket one was hard to get a good crop. I think the batsman only was probably best, I would have liked to make it wider, but I couldn't add much on the left coz of the guy in the red shirt. Maybe I should have got off my bum and moved ten steps to the right to separate them more.

Swim between the flags

iso 200, f 9, ss 1/250, polarising filter

It was such a beautiful day today that I decided inside of trying to get the perfect pic, I would just take the kids swimming instead. Sometimes you have to live the moment instead of trying to capture it.




Thank you everyone for your comments and CC yesterday. These next two are some re-crops of yesterday's cricket pic. I also also tried to darken the whites a bit. What do you think?

Croquet and Cricket

iso 200, f 4, ss 1/2000

This afternoon I saw these lovely older ladies playing Croquet. This is the first time I have asked strangers if I could take their photo - they were very obliging.

iso 400, f 7.1, ss 1/2000

What do you think of the crop on this one? My DH suggested this crop. In the original I had the whole of the guy in red, but DH thought it he was too distracting (both the colour and he is a bit out of focus) and took the focus off the guy batting. Do you think it works?

Okay, I want everyone to put their HHCC goggles on and tell me what you think, especially about the crops and the PP. Looking at them now my thoughts are that they might be a bit bright and i think I should have lightened their faces. So tell me what you like and don't like. I appreciate and value everyones opinion.

Sunset Sailing

iso 200, f 10, ss 1/400

Today I learnt very important lesson... always take all your gear with you (DH is saying "I told you so"). Thinking I would just be taking some sailing shots I only took my 70-200 lens. I got some good shots, but then I turn around and saw this amazing sunset. The tide was really low so there were these big rockpools reflecting the colours. I'm not unhappy with these pics, but I sure wish I had my 17-85 with me. For some reason my computer is hiding the settings, but I'll post them when I find them. I used Noiseware on these shots, first time I have used it - very impressed. I think the colours are a bit muddy in the sailing one and my horizon is a bit crooked - oops

iso 200, f 10, ss 1/250





iso 200, f 10, ss 1/200

Have a nice weekend.

Balls up

iso 20, f 13, ss 1/250

I was out walking this afternoon when i saw this tennis ball wrapped around an electricity wire - I knew it had to be my POTD.