Hi everyone. This week I’m sharing some flower images from my garden. It’s been a wet (and suddenly cold!) April in Canberra but I have managed to get out few times to photograph. I’m keeping the weekly blogs going for now, but I’m going to start needing serious input into what you’d like me to photograph and/or write about if I’m to keep this up.

Petals in the sun

To start with, a pinky-orange rose. This bush is running a bit wild and really needs a prune, but the base of it suggests it may be 20 or 30 years old or maybe even older. I liked the way the light caught the petals of the mid-morning light. It is unconventional to photograph a rose flower from slightly underneath, but doing so captures the myriad layers of petals, and with the sun at this angle they each are lit up to show off their colour.

A red, red rose…

This next one (there is a bit of a rose theme today) caught my eye one evening as I returned home from something. It was too late in the day to capture it then, but I did manage to get out the following morning and get some photos. It wasn’t sitting quite right for the light, unfortunately, as it was on the south side of the bush. However, this view allows a glimpse past the complex whorls of petals into the heart of the flower, with the stamen just visible in the depths. Please excuse the mildew on the outer petals – it has been a very wet year so far and all the bushes are showing signs of that.

And a beautiful white rose.

And the final rose for this week is this glorious white beauty. I love this photo. The texture and slightly off-white colours of the open petals compare with the bright pristine white and cream colours in the centre of the whorl. It combines an elegant, if slightly aged, simplicity in its outer form, with the tight-packed complexity and freshness at the centre. I quite naturally (and unintentionally!) got a very dark background to provide further contrast.

Some meadow flowers to wrap things up

I have planted out a part of the nature strip in front of my house with meadow flowers. I wanted something low maintenance but which provided some colour and interest beyond the vast expanses of weed-infested grasses that were there. Added bonus, they provide food for the bees, butterflies, and other pollinators too.

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I will confess to having been very slack and I have not learned what all these flowers are. Please excuse my omission in that regard. I do love just how much pollen these flowers are producing, and even at this time of the year, the bees in particular have been out busy collecting what they can. Earlier in the year I saw hoverflies and butterflies in abundance through the meadow too.

These yellow-and-brown flowers would have to be the most striking of the flowers currently out. There are several of them through the meadow, and amongst the muted browns and greens as the meadow dies down for winter they are very hard to miss.

Thank you for reading. Please leave me a comment with things you think I could cover – either photographables or topics of more general interest. I won’t promise to keep up weekly posts, as my previous experience is that becomes very difficult to sustain. I’d also welcome guest blogs on a photographic(ish) theme or based around photographs of the author’s taking – if you know anyone, please suggest they get in touch.