I got a new battery pack for my camera! I know it doesn’t change the quality of the photos, but I was just so excited to be able to pull out my camera to take a picture of something as simple as the grass on a hillside without worrying about my battery dying. While I was in Australia at the King’s Park Botanical Gardens, I had to decide whether each thing I saw was worth taking a picture of because I had to choose. Unfortunately the camera was dead about 2/3 through the gardens. It kept threatening to die almost from the start, but I somehow tricked it into being resurrected about 50 times. Now I don’t have to worry about that 🙂 I guess since I mentioned it I should share a few of my King’s Park photos:

My camera is incredibly capable of taking good photos, given the right subject inspiration. King’s Park was overwhelmingly inspiring- these yellow grevillea flowers were brilliant and magnificent. They are one of my favorite Australia native flowers. I couldn’t get enough photos while I was in the grevillea gardens. That’s when my camera finally decided to die for good, but I got a few precious shots anyway. I didn’t capture the orange grevilleas unfortunately 😦

I’m not sure what this sweet little flower is, but I’m pretty sure it’s a monocot. The water droplets really stood out to me. It was a rainy day with subdued clean light, perfect for capturing details like this.

And of course, the brilliant protea flowers. These are different than the ones I have been illustrating on my pots, but no less beautiful. I have been thinking about drawing some Australian proteas on my work.

The eucalyptus trees were showing off, begging for their photo shoot. I couldn’t get enough of these dazzling flowers tucked away in the minty blue leaves. These eucalyptus trees are characteristic more of the western side of Australia. I didn’t see trees like this one anywhere on the east side. I saw lots of myrtle and tall lanky gum trees, but not gnarly showy ones.

I will end the photo show off with a petite little pink grevillea flower. The water droplets were definitely working in my favor that day. Here you can see the intricate and complicated structure of these magnificent flowers. They are a challenge to draw, which makes them even more tempting as an art subject 🙂 I need to do some more photography here in the states. I will take my camera hiking next time I go!