Parrot Head

On a trip on Sunday 9th April 2006 I found this parrot (although I am not sure he thought he was lost), sitting upon his perch having a good wash. I waited patiently until he had finished (well I wanted the best results) and then snapped a few good photos. The wire netting around the cage was difficult to focus through so this image has been cropped quite severely.

Parrot Washing

At least in this photo the parrot was kind enough to pose in such a way as I could get all of him in the narrow focal area I had between the wire mesh surrounding his cage.
ISO 80 - F3.6 1/250s Focal Length 38mm

White Lily

This white lily was situated in one of the greenhouses of the botanical gardens. I had to wait for about 20 minutes after first going in before I could start taking photos because the humidity and temperature were so much higher than outside making my lens misty.

Not only did I have that to contend with, several small children thought it amusing to keep knocking either me or the stem of the subject. Once I had chucked them in the large indoor fish pond I found I could get on much better !!!

Yellow Flower

Just poking through the ornate fencing surrounding the fish pond (yes, the one I chucked the children into), was this yellow flower all on it's own. Luckily the sprinkler system has not long been off so the droplets of water which had landed on the petals added a bit of interest to the image.

Pink Flower

These small pink flowers stood out particularly well in the mainly dark green surroundings of the glasshouses, although, as you can see, I didn't capture any of the dark green here!!! I liked the petals on these flowers (from a photography point of view of course!) because of the prominent veins running through each one. It may be easier to see it on the larger image by clicking on this picture (or nay of these pictures) you can see it's big brother.

Leaf with drops of water

The mianly white surface of these leaves caught my attention (not in the same way as been flagged down by a policeman for speeding obviously), so as there was a whole section donated to them I initially set out to try and get a picture of the whole lot. I didn't make for good composition and there were too many people getting in the way (apart from the children I had thrown in the pond). So, I moved in close and played around with the settings.

Orange Flower

I just liked the flame orange colour of this little beauty. Unfortunately the "family day" had taken it's toll on most of these specimens which lay, detached from their stems, trodden carelessly into the floor around about. This cluster was all that was left of what one can only imagine was a quite dramatic display.

Umbrella Plant

This large umbrella type plant dominated one whole section of the main conservatory. Unluckily, the sun was not shining very much at the time, I would have like to have tried to capture the light coming through the leaves more.

Small white flowers

I took loads of these little white flowers. Trying to get a shallow depth of field whilst keeping things in focus.

Small Blue Flowers

Lovely colour...if this were a parrot I would be saying "beautiful plumage..."

Parrot Again

...and here he is again

Daisies

One raised border in the last greenhouse was filled with these daisies making for an impressive display of colour. It was strange to see such bursts of colour covering such a large area at this time of year.