B&W 5 Day Challenge: Day 3 – Hibiscus by candlelight

Hibiscus backlit by a candle

Revisiting one of my favourite photo concepts: a flower and a candle. I love the subtle lighting effects of a candle in a dark room. A single tea light behind the hibiscus flower highlights the network of veins in the petals.

This image is my Day 3 entry in the Black and White 5 Day Challenge. Jude of Travel Words (and other sites, all well worth a visit) has honoured me by inviting me to join in with this challenge.

There are only two rules for this challenge:

1. On five consecutive days, create a post using either a past or recent photo in B&W.
2. Each day invite another blog friend to join in the fun. This is where it gets tricky for me, as I don’t feel that I know five other bloggers well enough to invite them. So I’m going to twist Rule 2 and make it an open invitation — if you would like to join in, please do!

Click to see my other entries in the challenge:

• Day 1
• Day 2

Floral Friday Fotos: Backlit

It’s a wet and gloomy weekend in Sydney. I needed cheering up, so here are some images of flowers that glow in the light. Although it’s Saturday here, it’s still Friday in North America, so I figure I can sneak these into Floral Friday Fotos.

My neighbour’s windowbox geraniums backlit by the early morning sun. Today, alas, that dazzling ocean is no more than a grey murk.

Petunias backlit by early evening sun.

A bit of a cheat in that there are no flowers on this cactus, but it is certainly backlit!

Hibiscus on a shelf, backlit by a lamp.

Another hibiscus — really! You can buy jars of candied wild hibiscus to put into your glass of bubbly. They are edible, but between us, they look better than they taste.

Flower Focus 2

I’ve been going a bit mad with flower photos on the new camera, and wondering what to do with them all. Then I discovered Floral Friday Fotos! Sorted.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

Hibiscus backlit by the setting sun.

Hot pink bougainvillea in glorious sunshine.

The scent from the lilies was intoxicating at 1cm macro distance.

In the heart of a peony.

An orange-flowering creeper, against an extremely blurred red bougainvillea.

Purple haze

It’s jacaranda time again in Sydney! I used to think that flowering cherry trees were show-offs, but they’ve got nothing on the clouds of fragrant purple-blue blossom that catch the eye in spring. The flowers fall gently to the ground and gather like purple snow along the edges of sidewalks. Their delicate scent hangs in the air, a cross between lilacs and grape-flavoured candy. I couldn’t resist capturing the fleeting beauty of two of these trees on my street — and it’s a great excuse to play around with my new camera. 🙂

The warm glow of the brick wall in the evening sun contrasts the cool purple-blues of the flowers.

In full sun, these flowers appear more purple than blue.

Cool blues in the deep shade of evening.

Fallen petals framed by the metal posts of a fence.

One pink hibiscus among the blue jacarandas drifting along the sidewalk.

Flower Focus

I took the photo of the red bottlebrush last weekend. The other photos round out the flower theme!

Red bottlebrush.

Double rose after a heavy rain.

Miniature red roses, winter sunrise.

I have NO idea what these are, but I like the effect with the flash.

Wild ginger.

Hibiscus.