Day two of Singapore - the Morning...

I was staying at the Daintree Apartments no far from a National Park area, and there were plenty of monkeys in this area..  Keith got me up early and took me up into the Rainforest looking for them before the heat of the day.  It was still hot despite it being early though!  

Here a monkey is unperturbed b a worker walking to work... He snarled at me though after though - obviously doesn't like Papparazzi.  The monkey that is, not the worker!

I often feel like this baby.  Wouldn't it be lovely to run away sometimes...

I often feel  like this too!

Up in the rainforest were several people doing yoga, and a swordsman.  I wondered for a minute if I were safe!!

The quarry lake was calm with great reflections.  I had hoped that I would see Kingfishers, but there were none that morning!

I had this feeling of being watched, so looked up.  Sure enough..

It was hot, so while waiting for the Kingfishers, I sat down, and watched an ant crawl past my foot.  I wondered if it was a biting ant as it was quite big. I din't try and find out though!

Turtles swam lazily past...

And the sunrise lit up the leaves...

On the way back down I found gorgeous orchids, covered in ants...

And I was amused by some of the signage on the road going back to our apartments...

Back at the Raintree, I grabbed my togs and headed to the pool and slept there for two hours as I was so jetlagged and I hadn't slept that well that night. I always find jetlag is worse on the way home from Europe than on the way there. It was rather pleasant by the pool.  I could get used to the life, but not sure I could get used to the heat!

Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands

I thought I got up early on this morning, then was puzzled that I didn't get to the bus very early.  Turns out that Anne and Jori had left later than usual, which fooled me into thinking I was early too! Caught the bus to the airport, then the bus from the airport to the gardens. Keukenhof gardens are incredible. Stunningly beautiful with all the spring flowers including the tulips, the gardens should be on everybody's bucket list!  I'm not going to write much - just let you drink in the colours and beauty...

After wandering around the gardens for a couple of hours, I decided to hire a bike to the flower fields as I \really wanted to see them.  I was really nervous for two reasons - Firstly, I hadn't ridden a bike for 30 years, and secondly my balance. Having no balance makes me somewhat dangerous on a bike, but I was determined not to let it get in my way.

On my ride, which was really wobbly, the first thing I noticed was the number of tour buses inside the gardens.  Where fields of flowers should have been, fields of tour buses were there instead.  I've never seen so many tour buses all in one place.

The flower fields were stunning as I thought they would be.  The hardest thing about biking was starting off - was very unbalanced and wobbly, but once I got going and into a rhythm I was find.  I had one mishap though - my camera blag fell out of the basket and whent down with a crunch.  Miraculously it still seems to be working fine!

I rode the bike for about an hour, then headed back home by bus.  I'm so glad I went, and today was my only chance due to the fact I was heading away again, and the gardens close the day before I come back.

Jori met me at the flat then we all went to meet Sue, Annes lovely friend from South Africa, and her parents.We met at this amazing restaurant in the middle of the water.

In Camera Fun - Lindis Pass

Still on Day 5 of our Tekapo trip 3 months ago now.  Where has the time gone?  It's 2013, only 9 months until Christmas (in case anyone needed to know that!)  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

I love doing different types of photography as you know - I go all over the place, from macro, to landscapes, to artistic textures which drive the purists mad, and occasionally abstracts or impressionism.  I love doing this in camera, rather than in photoshop, although they can be done both ways.

While I was in the Lindis Pass photographing those gorgeous Lupins, I had taken my fill of images and I was waiting for Liz and Emily to finish up.  So started experimenting with different in-camera action shots.  

Firstly, I stuck my camera on AV, but upped the aperture to make sure that the image was going to take a bit longer to expose.  Then I started taking the images, but moving the camera in different directions.

The first from left to right.  I imagine this is what the river sees as it rushes past the Lupins...

Then I used the moved the zoom on my lens at the same time as pushing the shutter.  This takes a couple of tries to get right.

Then up and down.  I quite like this as it's caught the willow tree on the river bank surrounded by the Lupins...

A little diagonal...

And  love this one as you can actually see the Lupins quite clearly.  It almost reminds me of a Monet painting...

Alongside the river bank again...

 More diagonal...

This is another one of my favourites.  It almost looks like the Lupins have been twisted into candy bars...

This is another good one - as it has a clear focus point, yet is still impressionist.  I might use this in a competition a bit later on.

I had so much fun doing this.  It's really worth playing around with so give it a go.  Link me to some of yours as well - I would love to see them.  Bear in mind - that you throw away a lot of images in the process, but that's the beauty of digital photography!