sunlight and cameras

WHEN THE SUN SHINES ANY GARDEN WILL COME ALIVE 

The Maple border - Christchurch Botanic Gardens in early May

A beautiful Red Maple backlit with sunlight.

​

---

But perhaps not quite alive as these 2 photos above!  When you've just found out about about readjusting the light and colour readings on your phone camera, the resulting photos can be positively gaudy!   Beautiful as the maples are in autumn in the Christchurch botanic gardens, their colour never looked quite as hectic as this!  

The Maple Border of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens from a different angle and camera setting.

Or as gloomy as this photo above taken with the old camera setting?  Here the Maples look ever so cool for autumn, and were the Hydrangeas ever that blue, or the tree trunks that mauve??   I don't think so.    Hmmm - there is obviously still a lot to learn about taking photos with the phone!  When you carry your phone in your pocket, it can get so easily bumped and out of kilter, who knows what the photos might end up looking like?  Unless you think mauve tree trunks and chaotically golden foliage is actually quite interesting?  

Walking along the Avon river in early morning, when the sun slants low, backlighting foliage and creating such a sheen on riverside grasses and shadows slanting across the water and the lawn.

---

​This photo taken at another time on another day looks more normal.  Was the light setting on the phone/camera adjusted to a better setting that day?  Or was it all a fluke, simply determined by the state of my pocket?   Whatever happened, this is more like the sunlight  as we want to see it, reflecting  in water and backlighting whole branches of foliage, creating contrast with light and shadows 

Foliage and water lit up by sunlight accentuating foliage shapes and reflections in the water, creating atmosphere through light and shade around a pond in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

---

And here, sunlight reflects surrounding plants and foliage in the water adding  another  dimension to the scene.  This water is no longer hiding dark mysterious depths, but has become suffused with light and colour as the sun shines on it reflecting it's surroundings.  And as a gentle breeze comes up, the water ripples with movement and light, the sun burnishes the grasses along the banks of the stream and they too ripple with light and movement just like the stream.

Even in the not so grand space of my back yard, sunlight creating shadows plays a big part in enlivening the picture, in autumn when sunlight slants at a lower more flattering angle. 

Details of the form, shape and colour of Thalictrum seed-heads and Oak leafed Hydrangea leaves, show up in stark relief as sunlight falls on them.

---

And here, too, slanting shadows have become longer and more atmospheric, picking out details we may not have noticed before.  The contrast between light and shade becomes marked.  And the way sunlight brings details and the colour of leaves or seedheads into sharp focus is a revelation  which on a dull day with no sunlight  would go unnoticed.
What an autumn we have been having here in Canterbury, with blue skies and sunshine almost every day for weeks.  It has been so warm and sunny, that it feels uncanny.  The flip side is that everything is so dry and frizzled looking with deciduous trees losing their leaves earlier than usual.  Many are dropping off the branches - limp and dry, before they have had a chance to change colour.  And the ground is so parched and arid looking.  Is this climate change?  Where is the rain?