Sturt Desert Pea

The spectacular red flower with the distinctive black centre is the state emblem of South Australia and they’re starting to come out again.

When photographing flowers, generally the best effect is achieved by shooting them at ground level, rather than from above.

A bit of canvas on the ground to protect from the three-cornered jacks and all the other thorns is generally a good idea, but I forgot one possibility.

It was a cloudy day and when the clouds covered the sun there was good diffused light, ideal for bringing out the colours.

The only trouble was that I had to wait for the right light and eventually the ants found me.

I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. It took a lot of shots to get the one I really wanted and about the same amount of ant bites, but who was counting!

The Sturt Desert Pea mostly grows in red sandy soil and outback sand dune country but needs good rains to be seen in big numbers when they can cover a large expanse of ground.