A Dry Day In The Tourist Park

Boy, am I ever glad I decided to take the Olympus E-PL8 up to King's Park one Monday rather than the following Tuesday. Like the Wicked Witch in The Wizard Of Oz, I melt in the rain and there would have been nothing left of me but red shoes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did not have to pay for parking, though I was a little nonplussed at the sign - back in the 60's the parking problem was more a case of immorality than illegality. But no-one got towed - or carried - away on Monday. The Botanical Garden gate was new to me, and I was pleased to see the possibilities for the tourists. For those who might not feel it respectful to take selfies in front of war memorials, it provided a good backdrop - certainly large groups were posing and exchanging cameras all the time I was there. Many were mobile telephones, of course, but that is the way of the world. The standard view was popular, as it always is. We are fortunate in having it in just the position it occupies as the composition is superb. A better sky would have been nice, but when I considered what the sky was like next day...well, I was satisfied. With the capabilities of the E-PL8 for HD definition, even such a bland set of clouds could have been stroked up into some drama. I was just delighted to be able to centre on the tourists and poke the LCD screen to take the pictures in rapid succession. The lens has a useful, though not super, range of zooming and in conjunction with the IS system is more than adequate for the urban tourist. Where I really had fun was the botanical section. The Olympus LCD screen folds down flat and if you wear a wide-brimmed Akubra, it shields the screen enough to let it serve as an effective waist-level finder. This is my preferred working method with close-up subjects anyway - the addition of the touch feature for focus and shoot was just sweet icing on the cake. I am not normally a floral shooter - I respect the efforts of the real experts in this. But I did have fun, and I must also compliment the Kings Park Board and their gardeners for making an interesting display out of the native plants - and siting them close enough to the standard footpath to allow for a kneeling photographer. There was enough light to obviate the need for a tripod...though as in most cases, a tripod really does help. I was thrilled to get the shots of the bees. They are just not that evident around our yard...bees have standards and we don't come up to 'em...plus the rest of the family goes nutzo when they see one anyway. In the case of the Kings Park bees, they passed and re-passed upon their lawful pursuits and so did I. As for the flowers, all I did was line them up, dial in a wide aperture, and touch the screen. The camera did the rest. In retrospect, I might have used the tiny flash to put some sparkle into the blooms, but that can be for another time. Being in a public garden means you can't really make too much of a messy shoot of it - no good intruding on the fun of the other people. This sort of good result with little WA wildflowers suggests that this camera and lens would be a dynamite combination for someone going to the tropical or subtropical gardens of Singapore or Thailand, or further afield into Indonesia or Vietnam. Bigger blooms, brighter colours, and more exotic varieties. Plus the chance to pick up tropical diseases. How much better could it get?