I found a little beetle; so that Beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
~ Forgiven by A A Milne
A harlequin bug (Tectocoris diophthalmus) on the outside of our house. I grabbed my camera and macro lens when I saw it and took a few quick shots, this one came out well. Nice and sharp.
It’s very pretty, gorgeous colours. Looking at it reminded me of the poem Forgiven by AA Milne which I used to love as a child.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2019
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
—Dorothea Lange
I took this shot on the weekend near the 16s in Belmont. It was just before sunset and I really liked the way the light was reflecting off the water and falling on the grass. There was a nice breeze too and the whole scene felt very warm and peaceful.
In editing it I wanted the photo to have a bit of a vintage, filmic feel as I thought it really leant itself to that style and my landscapes seem to have been moving more towards that lately. I guess it’s normal for our tastes to change and I feel a bit nostalgic for film as well sometimes. Maybe I’ll have to pick up a film camera second-hand to play with.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2018
Never have I seen
A tree or lake
That could not take
My breath away
Beautiful light on the Newcastle foreshore last Sunday afternoon. I was heading to the ocean baths to shoot the sunset and stopped quickly to shoot this scene on the way. The light was amazing… I was definitely lucky to be in the right place at the right time!
Photo and haiqua © CJ Levinson 2018
A warm Spring breeze
Caresses my face;
I think of you
And remember
It was a lovely day today and I went for a walk along the Belmont lakefront in the evening to see if I could catch the sunset. Unfortunately it clouded over a bit but the light was beautiful and very soft, which was great for photos.
I’m particularly happy with how this one turned out. The sky had turned a lovely shade of pale purple and the reflection in the water was beautiful and it captured the colours and the light very well.
I used a tripod to take the photo as it needed a slow shutter speed, something I don’t use as often as I probably should due to its weight. The tripod makes a big difference when I do have it though so I’ll have try to bring it with me more often – I wouldn’t have got this without it.
Photo and haiqua © CJ Levinson 2016
Another sunset
Another day nears its end:
Time goes so quickly
The sunset over the lake was lovely this evening. The light and colours were beautiful, that dreamlike quality you only get on a nice warm day.
I had my camera with me and took a couple of photos. I felt like being a bit creative with the photos so I took this one looking through the trees for a bit of a different perspective.
And I tried to give this one a bit of a vintage look to make it a little different too. They both came out pretty well in the end.
Photos and haiku © CJ Levinson 2016
Birds calling, the wind
Blue sky, clear water, salt air –
Life’s simple pleasures
This is another photo from around Belmont from a couple of weeks ago.
It was a beautiful sunset and a nice way to end the day.
Photo and haiku © CJ Levinson 2016
In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. ~ JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit
It’s been a year this week since I went to New Zealand and I’ve been going back through some of the photos I took during the trip recently. I found this one today from Hobbiton which I’d always liked but had never really done much with.
It’s of Bag End, the set of the Hobbit-hole home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films.
Hobbiton is an incredible location and Bag End is definitely one of the highlights. It really is as beautiful as it looks in the films; even more so actually as you can see all of the details that just pass too quickly on screen to take in.
If you ever get the chance to go I’d highly recommend it. It was a wonderful afternoon.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2015
Along the lakefront
All is calm
As the sun sets
On another day
I took this shot earlier this week while going for a walk by the lakefront in Belmont. The sun was setting and the light reflecting off the water gave the scene an almost dreamlike quality which came across well in the final photo.
Looking at the photo it reminds me a little of a painting which actually wasn’t the effect I was initially going for or realised I had captured. I like it though and I didn’t do much editing to the photo either – it really was that beautiful and dreamlike.
Sometimes I deliberately edit my photos to make them closer to a painting but it’s always a complicated process and never looks quite as natural, more like digital art. It was nice capturing that look in camera this time and it feels authentic.
Which just goes to show there’s no substitute for capturing something in camera. And for how amazing Mother Nature’s natural beauty can be.
Photo and haiqua © CJ Levinson 2016
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Life is short;
You must spin
A web of wonder
For the whole world to see
This guest was waiting for me when I arrived home the other day. It had made a web for itself near my washing line. Glad I didn’t walk into it.
It’s an Argiope keyserlingi, or a St Andrew’s Cross spider. They’re known for the distinctive decorations on their webs, usually a zig-zag pattern forming an X in the middle of the web.
The pattern, or stabilimentum, is thought to be a warning to birds and similar predators to stay away. It also attracts insects as it reflects ultra-violet light.
It’s one of the prettier spiders I’ve seen. And its bite is mostly harmless and non toxic to humans too which is good to know.
Photos and haiqua © CJ Levinson 2015
