Perceptive Light

Olympus Pen EP-2  f6.3  2.5s ISI160

This Queensland box tree has been in the Midland Railway car park  for as long as I can remember. Its huge root bulb has been paved over on numerous ocassions so much so the paving has grown up and around with the tree. Two weeks the tree was cut down and the area was paved over…

Olympus Pen EP-2 f8 2.0s ISO100

Olympus Pen EP-2 f11 1/200s ISO100 14-42mm

Olympus Pen EP-2 f5.6 1/4s ISO100 Canon FD 50mm Macro

Olympus Pen EP-2 f5.3 1/500s ISO 400 14-42mm

When the new State reference library was  in built in Perth I remember seeing small creepers planted around the foundations and I made a mental comment that the plantings would soften the concrete mass. This decision by ’somebody’ was different. not good nor bad just different. Yes, it is fairly common in Western Australia to see ivy or Virginia creeper on the some of the older buildings but seldom in buildings constructed in the last thirty years or so. Looking at the residue of the skeletal growth of this plants life it is easy to understand why from a building maintenance perspective plants are undesirable, but ideas are changing. There are several new buildings in Perth that now have as part of their construction ‘green’ walls or roofs. To be continued…

Canon 5D f11 1/5s ISO 400 40mm Voiglander  Ultron

I have always been led to believe that this vigorous plant was Swedish Ivy Plectranthus australis. However now I cannot be so sure as while the plant is similar in form the flowers are yellow and this one grows and grows and grows! Its leaves have a succulent quality. It is thigmotropic, meaning it does not cling to walls with the roots when it grows. It requires very little water and leaning towards being a succulent it holds what it has in its leaves. I suspect that it may collect its water from condensation that forms on its thick leaves. This makes it ideal as a foundation planting on the shady sides of buildings. I originally found a 100mm piece of this plant that had been broken off the mother plant by a car that had driven over a kerb in the Perth central public library. I took it home and potted it up and to my delight it grew. Twenty years later it has flourished and occupies almost half of the planting on the southern side of my house.

Olympus Pen EP-2 f8 1/80s ISO125, 14-42mm lens.

Plane trees (Platanus hispanica) must be the most popular urban tree on the planet. The species has a huge climatic range I have seen them in cities as far apart as Moscow and Perth (Australia) although I can’t remember seeing any in tropical zones. In Perth they are one of the few common decidious trees even when badly pruned for telephone powerlines they still provide the sense of wellbeing that only trees can offer.

Olmpus EP-2  f6.3 1/500s ISO160

Olympus Ep-2 f4 1/500s ISO160

Flame tree industrial park… The name got me thinking that it was both at odds with and appropriate to its function, so I did the thing that every question begs and googled it and sure enough there are a plethora of parks both industrial and otherwise around the world named after the Flame tree. In this case I could not help thinking that the tree was probably remnant vegetation from what occupied the land prior to it being an industrial park and hence the name. If I remember I must come pass this way again when the tree is in flower or should that be in flame!

Olympus EP-2 f8 3.2s ISO 160