MtLawleyShire on an outing to the city

On a hot day, I met friends in the city.  As I waited outside the entrance to teh underground train station, I was intrigued by the reflections and shapes around me.

Taller buildings reflected in the round front of the modern styles around the entrance:

 

reflections and touches of colour:

 

across the road, blocky and odd shapes against a sky of cloud and light:

 

inside the modern building: yellow lighting:

 

contrasts on the exterior:

inside, where we had lunch – more of that lighting and a wall of bottles:

 

and a ceiling of colour:

 

This is looking up through all the hanging pieces to the glass ceiling and the shadowy shapes of the buildings soaring up into the sky beyond:

Outside again.  City laneways:

 

Another laneway:

 

a conjunction of city architectural styles, the first being intriguing light:

 

 

Slices of city:

a touch of art deco:

grace and plane tree leaves:

that graceful building from different angles, with all the different skyscrapers behind:

 

 

 

& a black and white of that lovely old building:

blocks on top of the imperialistic post office building:

It was a fun day where consumerism was indulged in – to great and long-lasting effect 🙂

MtLawleyShire and the architectural

Just before I go into work in West Perth, I like to walk around and take photos of the predominately modern architecture around this western part of the city.  I then play with the images, accentuating the intersection with the built environment and the sky, with light and shadow, and the flat planes and lines.

the first of these is a concrete wall around a stairwell

this is light on the western wall of a building

architectural features look strange when highlighted out of context

 

accentuating shadows make the mundane appear forbidding

 

removing details renders reflections surreal

two views of the same structure

 

perspective and sliced reflections

hanging in space

 

and sometimes, colour enhances the stark appearance, especially with summer’s primary lack of nuance

         

Sonel’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Textures

THis was a difficult challenge and I’m not sure I’ve done all that well. I might try again later as I’m sure there are some I could’ve included but haven’t.

http:/sonelcorner.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/black-and-white-weekly-photo-challenge-textures

 

The texture of the underneath of a mushroom:

The texture of pattern made by flowers:

a Banksia

the centre of a daisy:

 

A rose petal:

The texture of bricks in a fence – or is it the texture of play? Charlie the cat lurks in the gaps, waiting

 

This really is the texture of bricks on a pavement outside a cafe in Beaufort Street, there’s the texture of teh individual bricks and the texture they make of pavement:

The texture of light and shadow on trees:

 

 

The texture of light and shadow of a tree against the sky:

The texture of buildings against a clouded sky, or is it the texture of Perth – all soaring buildings as it strives to make itself feel important?

 

The texture of delicate light and dark and patterns made  from a close-cropped pic of a bird’s feathers:

The texture of light on water:

 

 

The texture of light and dark with light on water and in reflections:

 

the texture created on the sandy bottom of the Swan River made from water movements, and the delicate tracery of leaves and other dragged objects:

Then, there is the texture of friendship, but that would blow this post out to infinity, so I will stick to this one photo:

I hope you enjoyed them 🙂

 

 

Related articles

• Sonels’ Black and White Challenge: Texture (lucidgypsy.wordpress.com)
• Black and White Photo Challenge – Textures (bwphotochallengeentries.wordpress.com)

 

Wild Weekly Photo Challenge #22: Black and White

I’m participating in the onlineadventure travel and photography magazine LetsBeWild.com’s Wild Weekly Photo Challenge for bloggersThis week’s Challenge is: Black and White!

At first I thought black & white?  Do I really have photos that would be suitable?

Then I thought – well, my beloved Fattee Cattee is black, & fluffy & rather photogenic:

 

 

& flowers, even roses, minus their glowing colours are then plays of light and shadow, as are creamy magnolia, simple daisies and the fluffy native flowers:

 

 

 

Finally, minus its colour, a Grevillea flower with raindrops:

Birds are rather striking: black & white brings out the startling white of the gulls and the power of the raven:

 

The straight lines and angularity of city architecture is perfect for black and white:

 

 

 

& objects (these are Christmas ornaments) are revealed in a manner which both simplifies their presence in a photo and intensifies the interaction of light and shadow:

 

Some things are just perfect for black and white: a yacht with a pure white sail on a dull day:

And trees: their varied shapes and shadows.  These first 2 are paperbark – wild and almost scary.

 

They have wonderful flowers:

Black & white is great for details: a cedar trunk and the trunk of a massive moreton bay fig:

 

it’s also wonderful for the amazing shapes of trees: a peppermint tree and – well – I don’t know 🙂

 

   

These are Jacaranda trees in flower in Hyde Park, Perth, WA:

& the marvellous shapes of, the light and striping shades on, towering conifers:

I have enjoyed this challenge – probably more than I should have.  I hope I haven’t overdone it!!

I love playing with colour in my photos, but this has been a rewarding & truly a learning experience.  I am looking forward to visiting other entries.

Between the river and the university

Today I went to visit my old professor at the university of Western Australia.  It is Western Australia’s oldest university & has the most beautiful grounds, filled with huge trees of all sorts – my favourites and others.  So you can imagine – yes.  Photos.  And oh dear.  I took over 200 – in 2 hours!

I can’t post them all, & many aren’t suitable anyway (rain is not good for little cameras – or Keiras!), but even so – there are too many for one post. so I am going to attempt to group them.

As it was raining, some of the photos were hurried & blurred.  But many were OK, though I fear there’s not too many that are brilliant.  However, even in this first post, there are different trees.

First – along the river.  The university is on the banks (sort of) of the Swan River, and I parked in the Matilda Bay carpark.  The city was barely visible through the mist of rain:

trees against the river:

 

Peppermint trees and a tall gum:

 

Moreton bay figs in the rain:

 

 

 

 

Then the area between the road and the university, filled with all sorts of trees – almost wilderness:

 

These two are trees I haven’t come across in mtlawleyshire, but of course, the university is a long way from my little shire 🙂  I love the colour of these and I really will, soon – I promise – get hold of a reference book so I can figure out what trees these are

 

 

 

 

The first of the next two photos is, I think, a stringy bark, as the bark hangs off in strips like strings.  They can be very untidy!

and look – more rain coming:

I will do the next post tomorrow – in the grounds of the university.  And this is despite the rain.  And no – no kitty for this part of the post.  How can there be?  And the end of this post, as far as the pictures tell the story, I am still at the university 🙂

Work and a sore foot

Due to work pressures and a sore foot, there was no walking today.  This will happen more and more.  My PhD is demanding work and  have some very serious deadlines coming.  I hope you don’t forget me if I don’t get to post as often.

Today I took some pics in the garden.  They’re not spectacular.  It’s Autumn, despite the warmth, so there aren’t many flowers and my little garden is looking distinctly untidy.

But there are some flowers.  A large begonia has some bells, pale pink and subtle, they are pretty,but difficult to photograph:

   

Some herbs are flowering – red basil and the rosemary, but not many flowers – only one spike on the basil and about 5 on the rosemary:

 

one tiny pot of everlastings are still flowering, and a self seeded flower is growing in an unemptied but otherwise untenanted pot (obviously, this flower has become the tenant!):

 

some jasmine is flowering both over the pergola and amongst the ivy flowering over the back fence (the ivy is very untidy so no photograph):

 

and then there’s the untidy, usually ugly hedge between my place and the unit next door.  This is the only time of year it looks OK, mostly it is rather ugly, full of dead growth and it’s very invasive, especially over areas where I hang my washing!  But its yellow flowers are surprisingly pretty and I have a suspicion that a pair of singing honeyeaters nest there:

 

This is one of the areas of massed green in my little courtyard – lavender and dogsbane:

and I love the shape of rue leaves:

 

And of course she was in the garden – the sweetest flower of all:

Then evening came, with the beauty of the evening star above the lingering sunset:

and that is all.  No trees 😦

maybe tomorrow…..if I do enough work today.

Keira

 

a walk this week in the heart of mtlawleyshire

Yes, Hyde Park again, and a few days ago.  It’s been a crazy week, with birthday and all, so I am a little behind with everything.

It was fun revisiting the photos.  That day was hot and sunny which was lovely for the light.  Today is almost cold, but it is getting warmer again early next week.  This is not a good Autumn, though Hyde Park reflects the best of it.

Kitty sat on the desk, none too pleased I was going

I passed lovely bark, wattle flowers, a very strangely shaped tree in the bare front yard of a block of apartments, and saw a magpie on the topmost branches of the lemon scented gum:

   

Then I was at the traffic lights, on the other side of the road to Hyde Park.  I got this shot of a Norfolk pine with the traffic lights beside it for scale:

   

Then I was in the park – a riot of green and branches and strong sunlight:

 

& of course, the Moreton Bay figs.

   

A tree whose foliage made lace against the sky:

An ancient paperbark whose twisted form is almost lost sometimes amidst the more glorious greens and golds,  I love its bark.  It’s very soft to the touch as well:

   

The plane trees growing ever more beautiful as this warm Autumn progresses:

 

 

the water in the ponds falls lower and lower – this is a shot of some of the roots exposed like grasping hands:

but there is still enough there for water birds like spoonbills, ibis, ducks – and of course, and beautiful reflections:

  

 

 

 

 

& who was waiting for me when I got home?

Tomorrow – some flowers.

I hope you enjoyed this.  Keira 🙂

Autumn kitty in mtlawleyshire

Slothed on a chair in the (overly) warm sunshine in my courtyard.  And she stayed still – even when she saw the camera.  How could I resist?

 

Hope you enjoyed.  Keira

Feline Scribes

Feline Scribes

 

A black cat curls

like careless calligraphy,

A grey kitten’s soft in outline:

more a pencil smudge.

Between the written words

Strolls a white cat,

silent and haughty;

A sturdy black and white cat?  A page,

Moving on;

Or a cat white and grey?  Uncertainty –

A testing of letters before applying the ink;

A Russian Blue shows off elegance,

Panache,

a lettering of style.

The light russet brown of a young Abyssinian

Implies the start of a sepia illustration:

Nothing watered down yet,

Paint still strong and fresh.

An orange tabby provides stronger tones

To artwork,

shading against the brown;

A Siamese grants gradations, subtleties,

Complexities –

and voice;

Burmese, Tonkenise draw deeper shadows

Like the surprise in words;

A young long-haired cat

playfully fat and black

adds motion, sensation.

And a tortoiseshell?

Well, she just doesn’t fit,

Won’t make sense in words or pictures

So we’ll leave her out of it.

 

(written 12/05 – 12/08)  Keira

 

(not how I wanted to format it, but after struggling for over an hour, this is what I am forced into.  I wanted to use the curled cat as quotation marks 😦  but the fixed format has little flexibility )

Fat Kitty in MtLawleyShire

I thought I would do a post dedicated to Fat Kitty.  There’s quite a few I haven’t posted recently…

These 2 are taken as I come in from one of my walks.  One she is pretending not to really notice (though her tail gives her away) and the other she is determined to frustrate my attempts to capture her in the camera.

 

She is a round little thing, though not that little, and she doesn’t look it in these 2 photos, but she is very sweet.  Actually, in the 2nd one, she does look sweet.

 

This one didn’t have quite enough light so was blurred, but I love the way she just lies, watching the world with those huge eyes.

But she is demanding.  This one was taken when I came back in from a walk: ‘WHERE’S MY DINNAH!’ she seems to be saying.

Actually, she’s not really.  She’s greeting me, ’cause I had been away for a while & she was waiting for me.  It’s very difficult to get a photo of her here because she jumps down and runs towards me so quickly.

She has, in the last few months, started talking to me quite frequently.  She always meows when I come home, but now, she meows through her purring when I rub her tummy.  Or she will come up to me when I’m working at my desk and meow for attention.  Not food, just saying hello.

In these 2 photos, she bored with me taking photos so starts washing.  I love how her fur is so glossy.  It’s also very soft, but there is so much of it!  She has to be combed every night and the only way she will let me do it is if it becomes part of the dinner routine.  So – before feeding, combing.  It takes quite a while.  She is a very fluffy cat.

 

These 2 are are action shots: she found evidence of a visitor, I think.

 

I love these 4: she was just sitting and I was able to get some good shots of her relaxed, though in one, she looks very alert.

 

And this I just played with.  The photo was a bit blurred, yet it still captures her expression.

So now you have seen more of Fattee Cattee.  I hope you enjoyed them.

Keira