Garden of Twists and Turns - KL Gallery #11

The KL Orchid Garden comprises numerous turning paths taking you on a tour of natural beauty. These twisting roots epitomise the layout of the gardens

Flowers in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan

Bukit Sekilau in Kuantan is rife with nature. Flowers, trees, plants are on show on every road and outside each house.

During the month of May I'm celebrating 6 years living in Kuantan with some of the things I particularly love about this town on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

People in Kuantan love gardening. There are myriad flower nurseries dotted around Kuantan, most notably on Jalan Beserah opposite M. S. Garden Hotel, Jalan Teluk Sisek on the way to Teluk Chempedak, and Jalan Tengku Muhammad near Alor Akar.

A neighbour has invested in a number of pots and placed a load of flowers outside our apartment block in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan. This pink hibiscus was attractive, along with this white one:

The hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. I love photographing the hibiscus flowers on show in Kuantan.

I have been photographing nature in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan for the entire 6 years we've been living here. If I put all of my images of flowers together in one blog post, it would take hours to get through!

Of course, when photographing the same area for so long, the challenge is always finding different angles, perspectives and views of nature. Sometimes that's hard, but pictures like the one above make it very satisfying.

Although it's the hottest part of the day, the afternoon is the best time I like to go out and photograph flowers. It illuminates the images and brings out all the colour.

Oftentimes I've gone out in the Malaysian heat to photograph nature in Bukit Sekilau, only for my wife to complain that I should be more careful under the sun. Heat headaches have hit me after some walks around Bukit Sekilau. I think the captured images are all worth it though!

Now I'm more clever and don't go out when it's too hot, like I did when I first moved here to Kuantan. (Remember, us Englishmen love the sun!) Nowadays I wait until the late afternoon to saunter around Bukit Sekilau. On the occasion I do go out in the heat of a Sunday afternoon, I'll wear my sunglasses and cap, and make sure it's 20-30 minutes maximum!

I love this yellow stunner growing outside somebody's house just around the corner.

It's great that I'm able to walk out around Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan and see these lovely images of nature, any time I want. It's something nice I can do when I have a bit of free time or feel bored (which doesn't occur too much anyway!)

6 years of these gorgeous sights around Kuantan has filled me with happiness and contentment. Nature like this was created to please the human eye and brain, and I'm extremely fortunate to have this "botanical garden" right at my doorstep. I love Kuantan!

Mini-Malaysian Peacock Tree

It's a hot, sunny, gorgeous afternoon here in Kuantan! Today I'm directing you to my nature blog for some pictures of my Mini-Malaysian Peacock Tree.

I attempted growing a Mini-Malaysian Peacock Tree last year, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Head over to my nature blog to see the early stages of my second attempt!

Mini-Malaysian Peacock Tree - Take 2

Vistana Hotel - In-room Plants

Vistana Hotel Kuantan has a couple of in-room plants in the suite. There is one in each bathroom in front of the mirror.

So I temporarily moved them onto the dining table for a photo shoot. The dining table is black, smooth and reflective. The late afternoon sun was breaking through the window onto the objects.

Joining the fun is some Vistana Hotel shampoo, body wash and body lotion. I think these images look great as still life set-ups.

What do you think? I would love to do some more still life the next time we're at Vistana Hotel!

My experiment with engineered backgrounds, and new blog friends

Today's post is over at my nature blog. I have recently been experimenting with engineered backgrounds for my nature photos.

This all "stemmed" (excuse the pun!) from my camera's difficulty in focusing on part of an orchid plant in macro mode.

Hop over to Where Nature Presides - Kuantan to read how I overcame this problem and see more of my experiments.

Over the weekend I met two friends in KL who both have lovely blogs. One is a woman named Holly, she's from Korea and has a beautifully maintained blog all about Korean cooking. Go and pay her a visit, follow her and leave a comment at:

Beyond Kimchee

Secondly, it was nice to meet, if only briefly, Jennifer, a friend we made through the blogging world. She's American and has recently moved to Malaysia with her husband and two children. Leave her a comment, pay her a visit, it's an interesting read. It's a life-changing experience and she humourously writes about her new life in Malaysia at her blog:

Larsens move to Malaysia

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Kuantan roads - Part 3

Kuantan roads  - Part 3 takes us on a journey up and down the streets of Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan.

Today we focus on the roads which boast beautiful scenes of nature, my favourite places to go on a hot afternoon walk while the baby is sleeping!

These are some of my favourite images in the collection.

This lovely little plant rises against a grey sky, with the dome and minaret of the Bukit Sekilau mosque visible at the end of the road.

This orange flower soaks up the sun in Bukit Sekilau

Peering through a jungle of leaves and tropical flowers, the road is barely visible.

This half-eaten leaf provides the perfect windows to this road in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan.

Which is your favourite picture?

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Red bamboo plants

Today's post features the amazing red bamboo plants, which are prominent here in Kuantan.

I'm kindly asking you to visit my nature blog via the following link, where this post will be displayed in full. I hope you enjoy this fascinating plant and its rich colours!

red bamboo plants - click here

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