Leaves from a nearby gum tree. The red ones are dying off but are a standout when backlit by the suns rays.

There’s an upside even to the last month of winter. Overcast skies and cold winds seem to make August  the least likely time to be out making pictures let alone getting out of bed before sunrise.

You can always  turn your hand to the little things though.

In this case a small twig of eremophila freelingii or native fuchsia which doesn’t mind the harsh conditions together with some rock lichen thriving in the damp conditions.

©Copyright 2014 Peter MacDonald Photography. All Rights Reserved.

One of the shots taken the last time I was in the Flinders Ranges. The delicate blooms of the Butterfly Bush a couple of months ago before the heat of summer set in.

Looking for something entirely different but found this little beauty instead.

My attention span doesn’t reach as far as finding out the name  of the flower  with a purple centre….too busy trying to get a photo that separates the bloom from the background and deal with a bit of a breeze as well.

The Himeji Japanese Garden in Adelaide’s south parklands is a little haven away from the city rat race.

Standing on a desert plain surrounded by an untold number of rocks – all various shapes and sizes.

And then, there’s one in a million. Covered in lichen, tiny colourful flowers and the sun falling at just the right angle.

The Roy Orbison of the Rock World.

The Sturt Desert Pea is often seen in large groups. Photographing a single flower shows just how  unusual the bloom is.           © Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

Flowers  and animals are like children, best photographed from their level rather than an adult’s view. But sadly this idea is all too often forgotten.

Getting down and dirty with the flowers though is not without its discomforts and miseries.

The Sturt Desert Pea is a beautiful but lowly bloom and in this case ants brought the misery but the result was worth the pain.

© Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

 Burrs, prickles and three cornered jacks are a common discomfort in the Flinders Ranges and Outback and there’s bound to be plenty around when you are flat out on the ground getting a photo of a Rosy Dock.

From above there would be no way to have the sunlight backlighting the beautiful ruby coloured leaves.

The exquisite Sturt Desert Rose, a hibiscus as it turns out is a little more elevated but it is still  worth getting a low aspect. Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

It would be unusual if there wasn’t some kind of breeze blowing when shooting flowers. For that reason it is almost essential to have a fast shutter speed – around 250th of a second or more would be ideal.

This will probably have to be achieved by a low f-stop – maybe around f2.8 if your lens is fast enough and an increase in ISO to at least 400.

That will also mean that much of the background will be out of focus. A nice effect that highlights the flower.

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© Copyright Peter MacDonald photography 2013

Again there’s a challenge trying to eyeball a sleepy lizard, common around the area but generally seen from above. This chap seemed less inclined to display his deep blue tongue  and hiss loudly  when I met him on his terms.

© Copyright Peter MacDonald Photography 2013

Similarly this Masked Lapwing looks so much more interesting down at ground level.

A good rule of thumb for flowers, animals, children, even landscapes is to find an aspect that is not the normal eye level at which we see things every day.

Hardly a native inhabitant , but gracing a local garden nevertheless.

Couldn’t resist the vivid colours and the symmetrical pattern although the spectacular bloom’s name is a mystery.

The fading daylight along the Parachilna Creek as it reaches the western plains.

Incredibly wide, vast quantities of water occasionally rocket down this stream.

To give you an idea there’s a coupe of pictures here that show the Parachilna Creek in full flood.

The River Red Gum in the foreground is roughly halfway between the two banks of the creek.

Here’s one tough tree.

The Calitirs Pine is pretty common around the Flinders Ranges.

It is sometimes confused with the Cypress “pine’ but is no relation.

Used extensively in days gone by for housing, mining and for fence posts, the Calitris is termite resistant – a big advantage in these parts.

It is said the Calitris pine is one of the few plant species to survive the transition over millions of years from rain forest area to what is now semi-arid country.

That makes them pretty hardy trees as can be seen here on the rocky slopes of the Warraweena Conservation Park, east of Beltana in the northern Flinders Ranges.

The Flinders Ranges is well known for its wild flowers in Spring. Visitors are like bees around a honey pot when it comes to wildflowers, particularly at this time of the year.

There’s colour everywhere, like this image, which I took primarily to show the mix of colours in a very small area.

There’s Orange Darling Pea, the main flowers in the picture, a touch of mauve from the Salvation Jane – a weed, but let’s not get too fussy.

Then there’s the white Daisy Bush in the lower right, as well as a hint of gold and the lush green of the grasses.

Growing right on the extreme edge of it’s normal region, Mitchell grass is a noticeable standout out in the Flinders Ranges.

It’s the straw coloured tufts mixed in the foreground here.

Normally confined to northern Australia, particularly Queensland, where there is a high summer rainfall, it is very drought resistant and good grazing for cattle.

This photograph was taken in the last minute before the sun touched the horizon, bringing out the beautiful colours of the plains leading up to the Flinders Ranges and Mt. Samuel in the background.

Shot on a tripod at f22, ISO 100 and an exposure of half a second, a light, grey graduated neutral density filter was used over the sky.

The roots of this river red gum just exude a sort of silent strength.

They need to.

On the infrequent occasions the creek turns to a raging torrent it is those roots that save the tree from being washed away.

It has obviously weathered a few floods that have exposed the roots and washed away the surrounding rocks and gravel.

Hopefully the picture above illustrates this small story.

The creek is situated a few kilometres south of Mt Chambers Gorge in the Flinders Ranges.

The Finders Ranges in all their Springtime glory when a host of natives bushes, acacias, senna and the like burst into colour.

Part of the ABC Range near the Angorichina Village which is halfway between Blinman in the central Flinders and Parachilna.

Another of those beautiful little blooms that are currently gracing the hills and valley of the Flinders Ranges.

The beauty is not always in the big landscape.

Rocks, Spinifex and morning light….northern Flinders Ranges.

Winter may be making its presence felt but on the hills and plains there’s a really beautiful little flowers that’s defying the winter blues.

This is one of the many species of Eremophilia. It’s called Emubush (Eremophilia duttonii), widespread around the South Australian Outback and Flinders Ranges.

The flowers are quite small…you really have to look for them but like all the eremophilia they are exquisite and come in many colours apart from red.

These speculator little blooms are from a tree in my back yard. They are from the Crimson Mallee tree, a Eucalyptus tree (E. landsdowneana).

The buds occur in groups of seven and are bright red and sometimes pink.

These are the empty pods once the blooms have gone.

Crimson Mallee is usually found on rock slopes in the Gawler and Flinders Ranges, rather than my backyard, and it is considered to be a rare species.