SJ Allen Photography

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SJ Allen Photography

Wildlife Photography
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04/11/2019

The Blue-Banded Bees (Amegilla cingulata) reappeared in my garden on Friday! I wait every year for them to emerge as they're one of my favourite garden critters. They produce 3 or 4 generations throughout the warmer months of the year, but when winter approaches the adults die out and the young over-winter in their nesting burrows. They don't venture out until well into the warmer weather. This photo is from last year as so far the new ones in my garden are a bit too quick and wary for me to capture.

Like the bees, I've been a bit absent lately working on an exciting new project, but hopefully will be back now. The new project should be up and running soon which may be of interest to cat-lovers among you!

23/09/2019

Very wet Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) in Rookwood Cemetery during the torrential rain last week. He was getting soaked every five minutes by successive showers, but didn't seem particularly bothered by it. Luckily this week we're back to sunny skies!

10/09/2019

Echinacea flower blooming in a garden on Little Mountain (Queen Elizabeth Park) in Vancouver. I really like the contrast in these flowers of the textured little spikes in the centre and the flowing soft petals. I'm missing the summer weather over there a lot, but at least it's finally turning warmer in Sydney!

26/08/2019

Vancouver Bumblebee - a few weeks ago my son and I had a quick trip to my home town of Vancouver, Canada. It was a short visit, but was wonderful for both of us to get a bit of summer and fantastic to catch up with my parents, family and friends! It also reminded me of how much I love the slow busy bumblebees and miss them in Sydney (no bumblebees here). Here's one that was happily foraging in a flower in my Mum's garden (a hollyhock, I think?).

07/08/2019

Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) braving cold winds at Bayview Park in Burwood a number of weeks ago. I'm currently in Canada, but won't process any shots from here until I get home to Sydney. I took this image quite a while ago, but hadn't got around to putting it up until now. I liked the muted colours in it and the way the strong wing was flipping up the feathers. He didn't seem at all phased by the weather though and was happily strolling along the beach occasionally probing for crustaceans.

05/08/2019

Another photo of my current favourite grevillea, the always impressive Superb. It's covered in bloom year round, is a nice compact bush shape (unusual for the often leggy grevilleas) and loved equally by the local birds and bees. I've just planted a second one in the front yard to bring in even more over the next year. It's still small, but growing rapidly and it won't be long before it rivals the one in this photo.

31/07/2019

Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) hanging out and drinking from a dripping water tap. These little natives are occasionally annoying and definitely loud, but really quite interesting to observe. They're very social and the males even form cooperative groups to feed nesting females and their young communally. They don't tend to be a very loved species in Australia, but I think if people watched them a little more they'd be drawn into all their little ritualized actions and vocalizations the way I have been.

28/07/2019

Just a simple flower shot. These Osteospermums or African Daisies bloom all year and are happy in the crummiest soil in my garden. Sadly they don't seem to interest the bees at all, but apart from that they're lovely.

04/07/2019

This lovely but very recalcitrant model is my cat Rukia. In these dark winter days I've been spending a bit of time working on my studio lighting skills with the help of both of our cats. Rukia's definitely the most difficult of the two to photograph so it felt pretty good to get some shots like this one that capture her personality. Despite their challenges as photographic models, they're both amazing and wonderful cats (both rescues) and hugely loved members of our family :)

24/06/2019

A more abstract shot of Banksia Ericifolia in my back yard highlighting the cool little seed pods. I've tried several times to grow banksia and have failed almost every time. And the other two that survived haven't flowered yet. This one strangely was rootbound when I got it and I was almost certain it wouldn't make it, but surprisingly in the last few months it's started shooting up and produced this fabulous bloom. Ericifolia has always been one of my favourite banksias as I just love the red and orange hues of the flowers.

11/06/2019

Coast Banksia flower (Banksia integrifolia) on a super-windy and cold day last week. I had a wonderful lunch with a great friend in the lovely Groundskeeper Cafe at Ryde Park. Afterwards wandering around in the cold I wasn't sure I'd get any decent images and then the sun broke out briefly and lit up these glorious little flowers. You can see the lashing wind in the leaves at the top of the frame, but luckily this flower was sheltered from the worst of the blast.

30/05/2019

Winter weather has arrived and it's suddenly freezing here in Sydney. In the sun during the day it's still nice, but it's cold enough in the shade that even this Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) was puffed up to try and stay warm. I've taken a lot of photos of these guys over the years and always love their little upright crest, but it's been hard to get a shot that shows off their green and purple primary feathers properly. I was lucky that this little guy was so cold he didn't seem to mind me circling around until I could get the right angle. I hope he found somewhere warm to roost as the weather got even colder when the sun went down.

Address

Sydney, NSW
2141

Website

http://www.sjallenphotography.com.au/

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