Panoramic views

Regular readers of this blog might remember a posting I did last November, called Holiday Snapz, where I discovered the cool option on iPhones called "Pano". This allows you to take panoramic shots of sweeping views from beach headlands, lofty mountaintops, etc etc. Back here in our tiny little garden, we're a bit short on sweeping, majestic panoramas, but the iPhone's "Pano" option is perfectly good for taking some very wide angle shots, and that's what I was fooling around with this morning. Here's the results, but first, a little "how to".

To use the "Pano" option, just open up your iPhone's camera, and swipe the options ('time-lapse'; 'video'; 'photo'; 'square'; 'pano') so 'Pano' is selected. Notice in the photo above that you hold the camera upright, in portrait mode. Once you click the big white button on the screen, move the iPhone smoothly from left to right (you'll be amazed how wide the sweep is). Apple helpfully provides a line and an arrow, which moves as you do your pan shot. The idea is to keep the arrow following the line. Messages will pop up on the screen if you get it wrong. Any time you want to end the pano, hit the white button again. I find that if you use the full width of the panorama the image is weirdly distorted, so my preference is to use only about 50-70% of the panorama's full width. There is some distortion but it isn't horrible.

I found it so easy to use that even the first panorama I did last November came out fine. Practise for 5 minutes and you should be a wide-angle expert.

Anyway, on with the show. These photos are quite big (40cm across) so if you click onto the photos they will come up bigger for you on screen. 

General view of the garden this morning. Incredible how very
different it is from the one at the top of this blog, with the 'Garden
Amateur' heading in it, which is now 3 or 4 years old.

Eggplant, lemon grass, basil, frangipani, oregano and parsley.
The frangipani is getting so much bigger!

Succulent patch, geranium land, the newly planted native
patch with a groundcover grevillea and westringias behind.
The terracotta pot is home to a thriving bay tree.

Native patch, curly parsley in front, salvias behind, then mint
and a potted Thai lime on the right. And gnomes aplenty!

Credit where it's due

As regular blog readers here might know, to earn a living I work on a gardening magazine. I mostly edit the text written by everyone else, including our real experts in gardening – and it's thanks to them that I have learned what little I know about gardening. Sometimes they even let me write the odd story.

However, the best part of my job each month is to look at photos – readers' photos – I love it. All photos sent into the magazine eventually come to me. We have a very popular "Readers' Photos" section in the mag each month, and I am the first port of call for entrants to that part of the mag. Right now we're also running a "My great vegie patch" competition, and I get all those photos first, too.

My job is simple. I sort through all the entries and pick the "finalists", from which our judging team then picks the winners (to keep everything fair and impartial, I don't get to pick any winners). In a way it's great not to have to choose a winner, as the standard of photos sent in by readers is always so astonishingly good.

I guess it's time for digital cameras to be given credit where it's due. These things have enabled so many average backyard gardeners and wildlife lovers to take some stunning photos in recent years. The amazing macro shots and brilliant 'capture the moment' pix that land in my email in-box each day often just make my day. I'm always calling out to Pam to "come and check this out" as another stunner arrives.

Anyway, as I've just had an inspiring day with a particularly colourful and lovely bunch of new photo competition entries coming in, I thought I'd grab a quick selection of my own digital photos and post them in a meaningless bunch, to give credit where it's due – to the people who invented digital cameras. Thank you! (As ever, click on the photos and they should pop up much bigger).

Bromeliad flower in Darwin, looking like a space alien.

Scadoxus bloom in September, catching the afternoon light.

Louisiana iris bloom in October, a brief but glorious reign.

Frangipani flower that lasts all summer long, intoxicating in its sweet scent.

'Fire, fire, that plant is on fire!' No it's not, it's just Crassula 'Campfire'.

Sometimes humble green foliage does the trick, such as this Ajuga.

And let's finish off with the humblest and tastiest of them all – vegies. Freshly harvested 'King Edward' spuds. Glam spuds, who would've thunk it?

I know from my own sloppy methods of photography, that if I take enough shots, a couple will be good enough to use in my blog. If only you saw my lousy shots – there are thousands of them! And so that's my only photographic tip I have to share. Just take lots of pix and some will end up good enough to use. Works for me!

Hovering

Recently, while taking a few random photos in the garden, hovering directly above some plants, I was suddenly reminded of my one-and-only helicopter ride many years ago. I enjoyed hovering back then, and I still do. As ever, click on the photos to make them bigger if you like.

You can see why they call it butter lettuce. Luscious, creamy and yummy.

Cos lettuce, on the other hand, is a snappier chap, crisper, destined to become Caesar.

Soft, curly leaf parsley looks positively pointy when you get up close.

French tarragon refuses to conform! "I will wander wherever it pleases me, monsieur."

From my helicopter, suddenly I was seeing whirligigs everywhere. Basil propellors.

Oh no – an unsuspecting photographer caught in a flying net of lemongrass.

Twin-engined turbo-prop curry trees ready for take-off.

Up, up and away and we're over the Amazon, or is that just Ajuga reptans up close?

An Italian firework, the spinning Crassula.

High over the lofty Salvia forest, the blue tipped spires are dusted with snow.

While out on the savannah, a lone orange Zinnia says 'land here, there's a party about to start'.

I really should go for another helicopter ride one of these days. My first and only one was about half an hour over Sydney Harbour and the city, a spectacular place on a sunny day, which it was. It must be close to 30 years ago and yet I still remember so many details of it vividly.

The whole experience was brilliant, but I did enjoy hovering. That was otherworldly fun, not really flying because you weren't going anywhere. Wave at the people in the tall skyscraper! Look down on the toy ocean liners on the harbour and the ants walking on the streets.

In the meantime I'll just keep on hovering with my camera every now and then, when I feel that whirring sensation in my brain taking over.