sydney botanic gardens

After visiting Sydney's Botanic Gardens, my impression of the place overwhelmingly revolved around two things: spiders and bats. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see this photo pop up in my packet. I had completely forgotten about this wonderful Adonis, whose immaculate white surface shone so brilliantly in the bright sun. I love the shading on his bicep and navel, and the perfect blue sky against the white. Definitely one of my most treasured images of the Gardens.

This unusual pyramid glasshouse was closed by the time we got to it so we never got to go inside, but that doesn't matter, because the inside couldn't possibly be better than the outside spectacle. Though it's a little off-centre within the frame, it's not entirely unsuccessful.

The bats! I do realise that Melbourne's glorious gardens also have bats. However, I have never seen Melbourne's winged mammals of the night creating such a ruckus during daylight hours. These guys were constantly flying from one tree to another, screeching like maniacs all the while. (I didn't take any photos of the aforementioned spiders, frankly because I was too frightened to get near the huge yellow and black insects in their giant webs that stretched between EVERY TREE IN THE GARDENS. But trust me, it was all about spiders and bats.)

What stops this from being a super boring photo of a flower (which some may argue it still is) is the unusual colouring. The red is so deep and the green so aquatic - and the two against one another create an attractive contrast.

It isn't immediately obvious that this is a double exposure, but I think it's a nice one. You can't really tell, but it's the bats again.

Another photo I had almost forgotten about, and which I certainly didn't expect to turn out so well. Don't ask me what the hell it is. The best way I can describe it is a hollow wire mound completely covered in stones. But who cares what it is - the resulting image is pretty great.

Looking at this collection of photos, it's clear that the Gardens have a lot of interesting sights. It was a gorgeous Autumn day and it was a lovely place to explore over a few hours. Despite this, I think I prefer Melbourne's Gardens. Do they look as good on film? I'll have to investigate that. All I know is they have much fewer spiders.