I might have gotten some interesting sky shots today as clouds rolled in, bringing a brief shower late this afternoon. Alas, I wasn’t prepared and it was nearly dark by the time I was in a position to use my camera. So I procrastinated and found myself struggling to find anything suitable to photograph in the dim, fluorescent light at night. Just as happened on the first day, my attention was attracted by shiny objects.

Last June when Lego Lover and I were in Texas, we visited the Science Place in Dallas and paid money to have a penny reformed into this little souvenir. These penny presses seem to be available at many attractions in the US but I don’t recall them from my growing up years.

Considering how many Kiwis live in Perth, I’m surprised more of these aren’t floating around. This New Zealand two dollar coin is about the same size as the Australian one dollar coin. Perhaps it would have been interesting to place them side by side to make the comparison. The opposite sides of both coins, however, are quite similar as they both show the monarch.

I keep stashes of coins sorted into disposable plastic drinking cups, with full intentions of eventually changing the coins for bank notes. Lately, I’ve been a bit slack on the sorting and most have ended up in the same cup.

Our largest coin is the fifty cent piece, a coin that is 12-sided instead of round. I didn’t happen to show one fully in this photo but there is a ten cent piece on top of one here, just near the pressed penny from the US and the smaller (but thicker) Australian two dollar coin.

I’m not sure if it’s a trick of the camera but it looks like one of the coins in the lower left is slightly bent.

While I’m not all that pleased with the quality of the photos this time, it did turn out to be a more interesting exercise than I expected. Hopefully I won’t allow the procrastination bug to take hold again soon.

I used to get inspiration when out on bike rides and long walks but I realized recently I’ve done neither in a long time. I haven’t been on a proper bike ride in well over year, since falling off my bike in February of last year. Fear isn’t an issue but my bike is in need of service and repair from the fall. Nothing is broken but the bike seems to wobble along a bit so obviously something isn’t quite right. Procrastination has been my enemy on this case. Hopefully I am motivated now to find a way of getting the bike to the shop and getting that sorted out. It doesn’t fit in our car, even broken down so I will have to ride there or find alternate transport.

Meanwhile, there aren’t too many excuses for avoiding walks. The heat of summer is now past and conditions are quite pleasant for an afternoon walk before the sun sets.

Monday night I was driving somewhere when I saw a spectacular sunset in progress but the great views didn’t coincide with great places to pull over. Today I went on my first decent walk in months and saw glimpses of another interesting sunset. Our neighborhood is rather a flat terrain, though, and it was difficult to find ground high enough to capture the best views. These first two are the best I could manage on the day.

I also struggled with my camera’s long lens tonight. For the first time I couldn’t seem to attach it properly without a struggle. Meanwhile the sun was dipping further from the sky. Then I found it difficult to hold the longer lens steady which meant most of my photos were a bit fuzzy around the edges.

These photos are in actually in color, Daylight was disappearing quickly when I spotted this magpie flying on to the electricity tower to eat its snack.

Looking towards the hills, it looks as though the towers are all in a row, waiting to begin the dance.

My next walk will have to begin a bit earlier in the afternoon if I expect to have any decent light left. Otherwise it might be a good time to finally experiment with shadows in a low light environment if I feel like lugging the tripod around too.

I did get outside in the morning today but it was already late enough that the sun was too bright to be of much help.

Our cat was quite excited to have one of the family hanging out in her territory. She’d been in the front yard and heard me out in the back. Next thing I knew, she was climbing one of the shrubs and onto the fence to see me. She is not so agile now that she is about six years old and it took her a while before she braved jumping to the ground from there. But once firmly on the ground, she regained her confidence and happily showed off by rolling around on the ground.

Here she is working the cuteness factor to her advantage. After this, she followed me around until I returned into the house.

The light was too strong by the time I took this photo and the pesky breeze kept moving my subject. This is a flower from our olive grevillea bush in the front yard that is most visible from behind the fence to the backyard. The bush has become surrounded by other plants and you wouldn’t know it was there unless viewing from the backyard.

My morning session wasn’t as productive as I’d like so I returned to the land of gazanias in late afternoon again.

Both of these are from the same gazania plant that has heaps of flowers growing from it. None of the other plants is nearly as bountiful in blooms as this one.

After a near disaster yesterday, I managed to get outside in the final hour of daylight today and get these photos. The light wasn’t too bad but I wasn’t too happy with the constant breeze that was blowing. There’s not much to be done about the wind, though, as the Fremantle Doctor (daily seabreeze) almost always comes in by late afternoon. Only a handful of the 30-40 shots were suitable for keeping on this particular day.

All of these flowers are gazanias, growing wild on our front lawn. I think they are quite beautiful but I found out more recently that they are considered an invasive weed in Western Australia and should be avoided where possible. While all of the original plants died long ago, we have a regular crop of them thriving in our front garden.

These flowers were dancing in the breeze as i tried to capture them on camera.

I like the way the flower closes up, snug as a bug when the sun is setting.

I particularly like this pink variety. It’s a bit of a loner as there aren’t any other pink ones growing here.

I had a terrible time trying to get any focus on this flower but I really love the brilliance of colors and have kept this as the best of the lot.

One day I’d like to try some time-lapse photography and watch the progression of the flowers opening and/or closing during the course of the day.

I would have thought I’d get stuck into my little project early on the first day. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite plan things out as well as I’d have liked so was left searching for a subjects to photograph in the relatively dim inside light. I took a number of photos of various objects on and around my desk but none showed any promise. I was beginning to think I’d have failed my challenge from day one when my eyes were attracted to a carrying case for a boules set in the games room. Inside were six shiny orbs that provided a bit of potential this time.

I started out with just a trio to see what would happen and adjusted as I went along.

Considering how rarely this set has been used, I am amazed to see how scratched they are. I guess that’s what happens when you get the cheapest set available.

Although it’s not obvious here, I did use the full set

I discovered a color tool somewhere within Photoshop Elements and had a play. I was rather pleased when I happened upon my favorite color.

While these worked well enough for me in desperation, I’d like to revisit them some time during daylight hours and see what I can do with better light and additional color.

I’ve been rather slack with my practice of photography lately so I’ve decided to challenge myself for a month to keep up regular practice. The challenge is to take at least five photos each day for the month of May. Even if I end up with five bad photos, at least I will have made the effort. I plan to blog about my experiences each day and will post up to five photos each day. And my rule is that all photos have to be taken within the 24 hour period of the particular day of the challenge.