Wednesday, November 23, 2005

A Moment to Smell the Flowers

Last Saturday, I woke up pretty early (by moi's weekend standards) and with my camera gear in tow, joined an amateur outdoor photography workshop at the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which had been organized by Olympus for their DSLR users. Hubby was still happily in slumberland when I left the house, and I was thinking to myself, "Sheesh, do I really need to know all the bells and whistles for this camera? Maybe, I should just stick with Programme mode and auto-everything else!"

I must confess that although I've lived in Singapore for more than 20 years, I have never been to its Botanical Gardens, not being a nature buff at all. It was a PLEASANT surprise, and again I reiterate, looking at everything thru' a camera lens is pretty refreshing.

Some of the better shots are produced below, in the hope of enticing you to take a morning or evening stroll in these gardens soon!
Pregnant Bloom
Named this "The Pregnant Bloom", during pregnancy (a round full bud) and after pregnancy (an open bud bursting with seedlings). I have absolutely no idea what these beautiful flowers/plants are called, and if you can enlighten - do drop me a comment or two.

Tiger Stripes
This little flower was peeking out from the ground, and was no more than 2 to 3 centimetres big. It looked really delicate, notwithstanding those fierce tiger stripes petals amidst its pristine white body. To get this shot, I had to go down really low onto the ground. Getting up, I felt a couple of black harmless ants crawling on my feet (shorn in sandals). I DON'T LIKE ANTS. Did a little dance to get rid of the buggers and I'm pretty sure there were a couple of snickers from the other male workshop participants! Remembered why I'm not a fan of nature close-up!

Blue Haze

This was actually an 'out-of-focus' shot, as the camera's auto-focus was totally confused by the many strands at different distances. Nevertheless, the resulting blurry photo had its own charm.
I have only explored a very small fraction of the botanical gardens, and with such interesting finds, it does look like I will be sacrificing some weekend beauty sleep.

7 Comments:

Blogger slurp! said...

the first is simpoh air. leaves were used as "plates" for rojak in the past. fruits, heard to be edible and mildly sweet, no i did not try this. they are fav with birds & ants, so don't want to snatch their rice bowl hehehe ...

can't make up the other two.
btw, ants tastes spicy :) hahaha

11/23/2005 11:48:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

These shots are great! What camera do u use?

11/23/2005 05:57:00 PM  
Blogger boo_licious said...

Wow, those are beautiful shots, you can get them framed. I've never been to the botanical gardens but my parents used to go for morning walks there.

11/23/2005 08:48:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

slurp, gracias mucho for the input and you get my nomination for brave brave soul!

hi spots, thanks - pics taken with Olympus E-300 digital SLR, my latest toy!

thanks, boo, did ur parents used to stay in Singapore?

11/23/2005 10:51:00 PM  
Blogger boo_licious said...

Cath - my brother stays in Spore so whenever they used to visit him, they will go for morning walk at the Botanical Gardens since it's near his place.

11/25/2005 10:59:00 PM  
Blogger Joycelyn said...

hi cath, i'm blown away by the sheer beauty of these photographs! utterly gorgeous...

11/26/2005 05:07:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hi boo, your brother is very lucky to stay near the Botanical Gdns!

hi J, thanks for kind and encouraging words :)

11/28/2005 06:58:00 PM  

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