Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
Walking around the gardens at Blarney Castle, it is full of colourful surprises and delights. From sculptures to amazing flower beds. My favourite was the herbaceous border that seemed to go on forever. This Agrostemma flower was growing nearby to the Blarney House. It is an annual plant also known as the common corncockle and is a native of Europe. It was the bright purple that caught my eye with the dark green plants behind.
West View is a steep street of 23 colourful terraced houses in Cobh. The street goes down to the harbour. This is taken from the small West View Park as these bright pink and purple flowers caught my eye. Looming in the background is St Colman’s Catheral. There is a much more iconic point of view from Spy Hill looking down on the Deck of Cards Houses. I’d like to try and capture that in the early morning when the sun would be lighting up the colourful houses more. This is why I chose this lower down, more layered view of the houses. There were also a lot of cars parked in front of the houses which I found to be a little distracting.
Between November and February lupins bloom across the central South Island of New Zealand. This was my first time capturing them on the banks of Lake Tekapo. This rainbow palette of flowers attracts thousands of tourists to the area. It is said this was thanks to a farmer’s wide who thought the region could do with a bit more colour. Sadly these wildflowers are an invasive weed that has a negative effect on native plants, birds and other wildlife. I first remember seeing them growing on the side of Milford Road. In some areas there are thousands of these flowers carpeting the landscape.
This beautiful pink rose was photographed in Queenstown’s botanical gardens. More specifically the rose garden which had dozens of beds full for hundreds of amazingly colourful roses. The Janice Wallis rose was one of my favourites. This rose was bred by George Agnew and introduced in New Zealand in 2010. When photographing rose flowers like this I like to get low and zoom in on the flower. The background is also important as other rose flowers close by can be distracting. I did think about cloning out the tiny black fly using Photoshop. Whilst I do edit the colour and contrast, I try to avoid removing things that were in the original photograph.