lesart

I have been thinking about doing something like this for a long time and realise that the job is bigger than just little old me!  I live in Queensland for instance and am not exposed to the wildlife in other Australian States. I have created a gorgeous free site using the Wetpaint Community platform and anyone can join who would like to contribute in creating a wealth of educational resources about Australian Wildlife and Wild Plants.

My aim is to provide an educational site for artists, writers, researchers, nature lovers, school children, students etc to be able to find information, resources and help in identifying all of our beloved Australian critters. I have so many photographs  just waiting to be added and I hope that you do too and that you would be willing to share them with the world!  Even if you can't identify what they are but they are good quality, members would love you to share them and we can help you identify the species. This is very much a community site where everyone has the power to create, tweak, modify, correct, add to, help, discuss and so on. It will, however, be moderated just to keeps things 'fair'.

Why would you do this ?

because you:

• are passionate about Australian native wildlife and you want to learn more about all of the flora and fauna around you 

• you have knowledge in this area which you would like to share 

• want to meet like-minded people who share the same love of nature as yourself  

• are a wildlife artist/photographer/writer/illustrator who would like to showcase your work and gain more exposure (you can link back to your website)   

• you have the opportunity to sell your photographs to publishers, artists looking for resource photos etc 

• want to help raise awareness of Australian animal rights and welfare  

• have good photographs of Australian flora and fauna which you would like to showcase, share and educate others about

• you are a wildlife carer   

• are a writer or author looking for information and images on Australian wildlife

• have or belong to a wildlife organisation which you would like to promote

Pop over to Australian Wildlife Educational Site now and explore. Please support my vision by becoming a member for free and contributing in whatever way you can, no matter how small and there will never be any pressure on you from anyone to contribute and no nagging e-mails.  After all, this site is about a greater cause than our own egos but rather a like-minded group of people who are passionate about their love for Australian nature. Having said that though, you get your own page as well where you may choose to promote yourself and your work.  What have you got to lose?

A few weeks ago I visited Currumbin Valley in the Gold Coast Hinterland,  Queensland which is one of the most beautiful places I have been to.  The  drive through the valley was stunning with canopies of green trees over-hanging the narrow  roadway which wound its way past  homesteads, scattered along this scenic drive.  It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning  with hardly any other traffic on this secluded twisty road.  I had my binoculars, sketch books and camera gear with me, ready for a photo shoot adventure.

I started my walk at a Creek where I parked my gear on a wooden bench and noticed that there were lots of dragonflies and damselflies skimming above the water.  I was lucky enough to get a few good macro shots of the obliging critters who rested on stones, reeds and flowers, sunning themselves on this glorious morning.

Nature Journal - Scarlet Percher Dragonfly - a vivid red colour all over and very striking

Nature Journal - Redrump Wisp Damselfly - tiny with a noticable bright red tipped tail.

As I was sketching and taking photographs, I could hear a cacophony of birds in the nearby trees of the rainforest but there was not another soul about and the quiet serenity of the rainforest is very special - I had the whole creek to myself and the morning sun was getting hotter.  I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I didn't see him at first.  He was quietly perched on the far side of the creek, fanning his wings, then preening himself and watching me from afar.

A juvenile little pied cormorant

This little fellow then flew over to a tree log which was positioned over the pond and he proceeded to groom himself right in front of me without a care in the world and he was completely unphased by my presence or the camera.  I was moving slowly the whole time though making sure not to startle him and he allowed to get very close.  He was quite small and I had suspected that he might be a youngster.  It was a very special moment and to be completely alone with a wild creature of any kind is an amazing experience, especially when they trust you.

Such a beautiful bird and you can tell he is a youngster by the dark plumage above the eye and his head feathers were sort of fluffy.  Here he is right in front of me, fanning his wings and drying them off.

He was constantly on the alert and looking around him and in the water the whole time then he seemed to be aware of my presence and looked straight at me but was not alarmed and continued to be on the look out for food or predators by the Creek.

Nature Journal of the Little Pied Cormorant

After checking out potential predators, grooming and drying off his wings in the mid morning sun, my juvenile friend then flew down to the pond to find some tucker and he kept ducking and diving - this bird has the most peaceful, idyllic, undisturbed habitat and he is so lucky to be in this gorgeous rainforest environment with plentiful water, food and potential mates. I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet time we had together but I decided to leave him to find his food and move on in my rainforest walk.

There was a really strange insect who kept appearing along the Creek and when I got close he seemed to be "walking on water" with very long legs.  I have never seen this insect before and did not have a clue as to what he might be.  He certainly impressed me with his ability to walk on the water without disappearing below the surface so it piqued my interest and I tried to get as close as I could to him in order to identify the critter.

Nature Journal of the Water Strider

After doing some research I discovered that this pond walking critter is a water strider or pond skater which is a very apt name considering what I saw him do and walk normally as if there was no water under his long legs!  He seemed to float above the water and dart across it which was fascinating to witness.  How lucky this fellow is to live by a Creek and to hunt insects in and near water without having to actually enter the water of view the water as an obstacle.

Gorgeous ferns along the banks of the Creek as I continued my walk and when I got to a particular point,  further along the Creek, there were lots of butterflies who kept fluttering around and above me and then one rested on the ground very near me so I grabbed the opportunity to record him in my journal. I had no idea what kind of butterfly this was as normally butterflies do not simply rest in front of you, let alone stay long enough for a photo shoot so I was a bit unprepared but ready to meet the challenge and as I scurried around changing to a macro lense, the butterfly was still content in the same place!  I always get a bit nervous and trigger snappy when I see rare opportunities like this with the problem of rushing my shots, knowing that "the moment" will disappear in a millisecond.  I began to relax as this female butterfly seemed intent on keeping me company for a while and posing for the odd moment or two.  Thank you Mam!

Nature Journal - The Common eggfly butterfly

As I continued my walk along the Creek, there were these magnificent red flowers along the banks and I had to precariously balance on the periphery of the Creek bank to get a decent shot. There were also a few toadstools nestling amongst the damp, glistening  grass blades with perfectly shaped little hats.

I eventually wandered away from the Creek and trudged up along a steep and narrow, well worn, tree canopied path accompanied all the time by the pleasant bird songs including the occasional owl hoot but the owls must have been perched way up in the high tree hollows because I could not see any.  Hot and sticky from the climb, I was rewarded by arriving at a large pond and to get there, the track was downhill.  Long reeds, swaying grasses and colourful flowers lined the banks of this gorgeous pond and I immediately spotted a laughing kookaburra who greeted me as I arrived with his raucous laugh.

This kookaburra ended up following me for the rest of my walk and he flew from tree to tree, just in front of me all all the way as I took in the gorgeous flora and fauna in his domain.  I looked up behind the trees to the misty hills in the background and low cloud was still shrouding the cool blues and greens of the steep cliff face.  Lots of wild flowers lined the pond in magnificent hues attracting insects who fed on the nectar and pollen and drank from the fresh dew drops of  late morning.

A Wanderer Caterpillar is happily munching on this plant.

I wandered further along this gorgeous pond and saw a pair of  pacific black ducks who were feasting on the green plant life by the pond. I have never seen ducks eat plants before.  My kookaburra friend led me deeper into the rainforest alongside the pond and I caught a very quick glimpse of a king parrot in the high tree tops above me and listened to the shrill chorus of  rainbow lorikeets in the nearby trees.

A pair of pacific black ducks

More and more plants and seed pods intrigued me as I tread alongside the swimming ducks and the variety of colours and smells invaded my senses as I quickly sketched and photographed them.  Insects would appear from nowhere of all shapes and sizes, often sharing flowers with others.

You can just see a well camouflaged flower spider on these two milkweed flowers.

Dandelion Seed and Blackwood

All of a sudden, my kookaburra companion flew higher up to tree branches on the other side of the pond and I could hear the soft screeches of his hungry youngsters.  Fantastic wildlife behaviour in their natural habitat and it was almost as if he was leading me to his family and introducing them to me.

Dew drops on milkweed flowers.

This is a stunning place and I certainly will never forget my bush trek here and all the flora and fauna which were new to me and I have recorded in my nature journal.  My favourtie moments were the fleeting friendships of the cormorant and laughing kookaburra.

I often think that there is a misconception out there that photography as an art form is easy, especially as there is an excellent range of cameras which do a remarkably good job even set to auto where we can just shoot away to our heart’s content. Now, it’s true, in my opinion, that the top of the range digital cameras do a fantastic job but I also feel that the photographer needs to know what they are trying to actually achieve in the photograph and it is another form of art after all where the person looking through the lens has to consider composition, lighting, focal point, background, colour, texture, mood, personality, focus etc before pressing the shutter. You will understand that I’m not talking about quick snapshots in this article but photography as an art form.

I have included this post due to my current photography competition which I am running entitled “New Year Garden Guests” which is open to amateur photographers like myself .  I am not a photography expert but I do have professional training in art and design.  I thought that these examples I am about to show you and discuss might give you some tips and inspiration for the competition.

Ok, this is a real example of a mini photo shoot I had with a garden guest - the fantastic stick mantid which has personality plus!  I have only ever seen two and this series is from my second sighting and he appeared quite out of the blue when I was in the bathroom, believe it or not, and I happened to see him on the outside of the window.  Now, I have to confess at this point that I am particularly “obsessed” with any form of wildlife in my garden since I purchased my camera and it has opened up a whole new world that I never knew existed to the point where I do not want to weed my yard for fear of killing some of these critters I have photographed.  How’s that for the ultimate excuse in not working  in the garden!

Shot 1 is the very first photograph I took (outside my bathroom window) simply to show you that this is a real photo shoot.  This is what I consider a to be a “snap shot” and a picture that is taken quickly, without any thought, simply to capture the moment or evidence of what you saw. The only bonus is that he happens to be looking right at the camera. I was using an additional macro lens to take these photographs.

Shot 2 is an improvement as I have zoomed in to get rid of the ugly, unnatural background of the window but there is still the ugly brick background with some strong shadows which detract from the mantid.  He is looking up at the camera which is good and his head is a focal point but still not the ideal shot.

Shot 3 is much better as I have zoomed in further on the mantid’s face which is nice and sharp and has minimised the ugly brick wall background but it’s still not the ideal background due to the lines  and distant brick wall.

In "When it's Safe to Cross", my stick friend started to travel away from the window, onto the concrete path.  This shot has some interest as he is crossing from a man made environment to more natural environment and there is a bit of character about him, pausing to reflect which way he will go, like crossing a road,  so I called it “When It’s Safe to Cross”.  This is where you can introduce personality into your shots and come up with some clever titles to express the moment.  I have also slightly darkened the background which detracted from the insect and created a soft halo around the mantid’s face.

Now the best ones from the shoot and I love the photograph which I have called "Tip Toes" as it really portrays the praying action they have and he almost looks like he’s playing the piano with his head semi tiltled saying “Am I doing alright?” I like the composition and there is the rule of thirds which is important in composing an image.  The soft background makes the stick mantid really pop  and become the focal point plus the personality aspect has been brought out.

Checkin' You Out

"Checkin' You Out" works because it purely focuses on the mantid’s head which is what I was interested in and he is looking straight at me.  To help minimise and softly darken the background I have used a vignette effect or filter which goes in a circular direction in this shot and basically creates a soft black border which blends nicely into the existing background.

Shot 4

Shot 4 I love for many reasons - the detail of this wonderfully prehistoric looking creature and he appears to be washing his face with his tiny talons or whatever they actually are.  I love the composition as he is placed diagonally across the  frame and again off centre.  The background is soft and natural, making the stick mantid really pop out and that eye just seems to be looking at you the whole time.

I hope you have found this helpful and what I didn’t mention before was patience and having lots of it while you wait and wait for the critters to get into different positions without scaring them.  This guy just LOVED the camera though and was so slow moving that he was a great model!  I took lots of shots from many different angles as well which you simply must do - try profile, from above, down low, close-up etc. One thing I never ever do is to remove a creature from their natural environment for the sake of a photograph - if it’s not meant to be then there will be other days.

Remember, if you want to enter the “New Year Garden Guests” Photo Competition please sign up for my Newsletter (look for the chimp on the side bars of my website).  You will also get 3 free wallpapers to download and lots of other tips and goodies in the newsletter plus more info about the competition, the prizes, closing date etc.
 

I've been watching and photographing a couple of huge Orchard Swallowtail Caterpillars for the past week and they are the biggest caterpillars I have seen.  I was keen to keep an eye on them to perhaps be lucky enough to witness the transformation to cocoon and butterfly. If you get upset easily you may not want to read this story.

It takes four weeks for the caterpillar to mature, ready to turn into a pupa and these ones in my garden are very developed.  They have a "Y" shaped gland behind the head, the osmeterium which you can see in both of the above photographs I took.  This pops up when the caterpillar senses danger and it is a bright red colour which I also noticed gives off an odour so I wasn't game to get too close!

After Christmas, I photographed them again but there was another critter on the branch sitting very close to one of the caterpillars which I didn't think anything of until I went out again the next day and the caterpillars were gone - they had completely vanished! I searched for a pupa or anything that remotely resembled one but found nothing.  I was intrigued then about the other bug and when I found out what it was I was completely horrified!

Here is the evil "bad guy" and he was actually killing the caterpillar!  He is an assassin bug, named because of the way they feed on their prey. If you look closely you will see that he is piercing the caterpillar with a sucking mouthpart which is a weapon (proboscis) with which to kill other insects.  He is sucking out the body fluids of the caterpillar and feeding on them - you can see why I was horrified and it explains why the caterpillars had vanished.  I was upset for the rest of the day after discovering this.

I have developed a liking for vector art which seems to be very trendy and popular at the moment and I have dabbled with this art form before using Corel Draw but I am trying out Adobe Illustrator instead and want to learn more about this wonderful software for work as well. In this example I used a mixture of purchased and free vectors of a garden of fruit which I am really pleased with.  It’s such a clean art form and I love all the layers and depth of colours you can achieve plus the advantage of enlarging the vectors without losing quality.  I aim to design my own vectors from scratch or from photographs for my next art project.

Here are my latest illustrations

I have recently launched a brand new site which is exclusively designed for wildlife artisans worldwide who strive to produce high quality artworks of flora and fauna. The site is totally free and you can visit it at http://www.international-nature-niche.ning.com and upon membership you will have access to:

• your own gallery with slideshow
• blog
• RSS feeds
• e-mail
• facility to import photos from your Flickr account
• embed videos from YouTube
• gadgets
• live chat
• music player
• forums
• groups
• facility to embed badges promoting your work on this site
• invite other members

The reason I have created this site is that I have seen so many wonderful wildlife artists’ work on the Internet and yet we are all so scattered.  It can be an isolating profession also so why not

For a long time now I have felt the need to create a social community based on my passion for the arts and photography with a focus on two things, Australia and wildlife. As a practising artist and photographer and also being Australian, I felt that there was a real gap for Australian artists to launch themselves, network locally and gain exposure to Australian facilities such as galleries, exhibitions, retail outlets, online shops, self-publishing options, local photo shoots or sketching and painting classes, framers, suppliers, etc you get the idea. Click here to take a peek at the site and join if you wish.

There are many really good sites with similar aims but they are mostly in America and this is not advantageous in many ways for Australian artists. My vision for this Australian Wildlife Art Community “Oz Nature Niche” is for it to grow into something huge - a massive network of resources if you like but I can’t do it on my own.

I have set this up so that members may join freely and contribute freely in any way they can. I think that if we can gather a pool of artists’ expertise, resources, stimulus, galleries, portfolios etc and then advertise the sight by using the badges available which we can embed on our own websites and blogs we can’t help but open up a larger audience. I have nearly 30,000 visitors who have checked out my website at http://www.lesley-smitheringale-fine-art.com so you can imagine that if the Nature Niche Badge is embedded on my site, it should generate a lot of interest and likewise when all members do the same. (You can see an example of a badge on my website).  The badges have the facility to show members' photos as well - even more dynamic.

I see it as a community which we will visit often and help each other out and I can’t count the hundreds of hours I have spent scouring the Internet for information on all of the previous things I have mentioned. After now doing it the hard way and bookmarking a lot about sites and blogs, finding out ways to design a website, the best online shops, how to self-publish a book, where to purchase matte boards and so on, why not share this knowledge with a community? Remember also, that it won’t cost you a cent, totally free - just your time and willingness to share in order to promote the arts in Australia.

I only hope that you will share my vision and help this site grow as I think it has so many wonderful opportunities. If you join and you have your own, fresh ideas - things I haven’t considered then please let me know or start a new forum discussion in the relevant groups.

What you will get for FREE if you join “Oz Nature Niche”:-

• your own personal home page which is customisable with themes
• your own blog with rss feed and facility to import your Wordpress blog into Oz Nature Niche
  
• your own e-mail at Oz Nature Niche
  
• rss feeds and the ability to embed your own rss feed from your website or blog
• your own gallery or portfolio, artist bio and resume, links to your other sites
  
• forums - join them and create them for advice, opinions and members' expertise
  
• option to invite friends to your Group(s)
• join specialised Wildlife Groups within Oz Nature Niche such as Fine Artists, Photographers, Digital Artists, Manga Cartoon Illustration & Comics, Crafts Merchandise & Textiles
• exposure to critiques and constructive criticism of your work
• new friends and connections with fellow Australian artists
• facility to add gadgets, widgets, music, videos including YouTube to your own personal page and Group pages
• engage in Live Chat within all of the Groups in Oz Nature Niche
• lots of exposure, networking opportunities and marketing possibilites
  
• to create a Badge to advertise Oz Nature Niche on your existing website and blog
•  plus many more features still to come ….

Hope to meet you on the Nature Niche.

Kind Regards

Lesley

 

I have seen this miniscule critter twice in my garden and despite looking up my reference books and scouring the internet, I cannot identify this bug. He is tiny, measuring about 1cm in diameter and I don’t know if he is a young butterfly/moth/grasshopper who will grow into something larger or if this is as big as he gets.  I have nicknamed him Casper the Friendly Ghost as he is so ghostly white, almost transparent like his identity!  It’s really bugging me, excuse the pun and there must be someone out there who can identify him.  Please put me out of my misery and I would really appreciate any help you can offer.  Here are some pictures of my friendly ghost …

 

I have always loved dragonflies but have never been able to get up-close & personal with them until I started photographing them using a macro lens. I really adore this lens and taking shots with it is my favourite passion in my photographic endeavours. As an artist, I get such a buzz when I look at the macro images on my computer screen and visually indulge in the patterns, textures and colours nature has to offer. It doesn’t get any better than this and it is also very educational as I am learning about all the creatures with whom I share my garden. Here are a few of the dragonflies and damselflies I have managed to capture so far.