Sunset from my patio.

[Rudi Venter]

I have shot many a sunset from my patio, it is one of my favorite places where I can often be found sitting reading or even working with the birds around me, always with a camera at hand just in case

The patio leads out from the main bedroom on the second story allowing a view over the garden and the surrounding area with hardly anything man-made in sight making it easy to pretend you are really in the wild.

Here are a few....

Thanks for looking!
Rudi

 

[Hamish Gill]

Amazing colours Rudi!
Certainly sounds like a nice place to spend your time...
I'm really intrigued to see what your garden looks like as a whole ...
So far we have seen small areas, bugs, and views of sunsets over trees ....

 

[Pete Askew]

Amazing Rudi. That second one almost looks like it's painted.

How about an aerial view of the garden to satisfy Hamish's curiosity. He can get his mate with the 50' pole to do his to reciprocate!!

 

[Rudi Venter]

Amazing colours Rudi!
Certainly sounds like a nice place to spend your time...
I'm really intrigued to see what your garden looks like as a whole ...
So far we have seen small areas, bugs, and views of sunsets over trees ....

Thanks Hamish!

I do not have a complete photo of my garden, the vegetation is far to dense for anything more than small area shots. I have more than 300 different species of indigenous plants in my garden with many species represented by several samples. In many ways it is an urban forest with no large open spaces. In many places you can't even see the sky when you walk along the paths.

All the indigenous plants have attracted a large collection of birds and other residents like Bush Babies, due to the dense vegetation they feel safe but it makes it difficult to get photos of them.

 

[Rudi Venter]

Amazing Rudi. That second one almost looks like it's painted.

How about an aerial view of the garden to satisfy Hamish's curiosity. He can get his mate with the 50' pole to do his to reciprocate!!

Thanks Pete!

I wish I could take a photo from above but since I live close to a large air force base (Waterkloof) it is a no-fly zone.There is hope though, we (my flying school/club) have managed to arrange a fly-in to the airbase later this year, I am planning to route to the air base via my house for a few photos.

 

[Paul Lange]

Looks like a very nice place to relax Rudi. My garden is tiny by comparison and has a lovely vista of the back of a neighbours house. Our town is way behind on the governments set quota of new build houses and soon I fear all of the green meadows close by will be gone. The exposure on your shots seem spot on, did you just use the matrix metering? quite impressive that it got is so right if you did. If you didn't impressive that you got it so right

 

[Hamish Gill]

Haha, what a life you lead Rudi... there is a certain irony in a pilot living in a no fly zone!
Your garden sounds wonderful.. I shall certainly be interested to see the shot from a plane!

 

[Rudi Venter]

Looks like a very nice place to relax Rudi. My garden is tiny by comparison and has a lovely vista of the back of a neighbours house. Our town is way behind on the governments set quota of new build houses and soon I fear all of the green meadows close by will be gone. The exposure on your shots seem spot on, did you just use the matrix metering? quite impressive that it got is so right if you did. If you didn't impressive that you got it so right

It is always sad when the open areas disappear, fortunately we have plenty permanent green conservation areas in my city, but it is still a city.

I am fortunate that it is not easy to see the neighbors from my place, only spot I can is from the pool area but even there you have a 10' wall in the way so it is quite safe to skinny-dip

Edit: Forgot to reply to the exposure question....

I mostly use spot metering, picking the brightest spot or a spot that MUST be exposed correctly, seems to work most of the time.

 

[Rudi Venter]

Haha, what a life you lead Rudi... there is a certain irony in a pilot living in a no fly zone!
Your garden sounds wonderful.. I shall certainly be interested to see the shot from a plane!

Yes I am privileged Hamish, but like all things it comes at a price.....

The no-fly zone is quite funny, sometimes I wonder if my better half knew that when we were looking for a place....

 

[Ralph Thornton]

I sure like the sun rays in the first photo but the third one is my fav. I like the composition that includes a few more trees at the bottom. Seems to connect the photo to the planet a little better. Sure is colorful!

 

[Rudi Venter]

I sure like the sun rays in the first photo but the third one is my fav. I like the composition that includes a few more trees at the bottom. Seems to connect the photo to the planet a little better. Sure is colorful!

Thanks Ralph!

Yes, I also like #3 a lot, it was quite a long exposure since it was quite dark already, the only shot in this collection shot from a tripod.

 

[Alastair Cummins]

Thats just showing off! Great colours in these pics and I love the beams of light in the first!

 

[Darren Turner]

Fantastic photo, the colours are amazing.........especially like 3rd from last with the silhouette of the garden included in the photo. The detail in the clouds is also great.

Great work

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I like the lighting in #3 - those backlit clouds really look nice - and it's so much sharper being on a tripod...

 

[Katherine Lihou]

Hard to pick favourites but #1, #2, and #5 for me. Those colours are so vibrant without being over the top. Beautiful work.

I was thinking about your problem getting a clear shot of the bush babies. You might want to follow the example of entomologists who shake trees whilst spreading nets underneath. You'd probably have to shake a bit more vigorously to dislodge the bush babies, but I'm sure they'd release their grip in the end. Then after you've calmed them down a bit and taken their photographs you could get a ladder and pop them back up on the branches again

Cheers,

Kate