House & Garden in the Gazing Ball

Wow....this is a great pic Alandra.....beautiful home there and all contained in the gazing ball....love it!

WoW, ill have to try this, im experimenting with my camera and i have gazing Ball, Great pic..

Gorgeous and clever!

thanks to you all, Janey, Youngdaisydee and Tasteya. It is fun to play with getting images reflected in the gazing ball. The house looks a bit "bent out of shape" here, due to the curve of the ball, but just to give you a general idea. It's difficult to capture images of the front of our house, due to the surrounding shrubs and sunken garden, so this is about the only way to do it.

How on earth did you manage the picture without getting yourself and the camera in it? You have a lovely garden. I think you've just boosted gazingball sales to goY members! Love it!

I was going to ask the same question Lori, ive had a try this morning but no matter how much i tried to hide behind a plant i was still in the pics!!

Hi Lori and Youngdaisydee, glad you like the gazing ball pics. We love ours, but soon will need to replace it, as some of the silver is wearing off due to it being left outside all winter in rain and snow. We used to bring it in, but are getting lazier.

It's awhile ago since I took those, but am pretty sure in that one, I would have been at one of the front windows, pointing the lens out between the hanging basket and the side of window :)

We've been looking to get another gazing ball lately, but have only seen the coloured ones. There's more reflection in the regular mirror type and we want the hummers to be attracted to them.

So there you go, youngdaisy! get out your wide angle telephoto lense!! Are you on the coast or in the interior, Alandra? I saw the dark and open window and thought "wow...she really has an excellent lense on her camera if she took it from that distance!!!" It's a really great picture...I love it! Agree about coloured gazing balls..they seem to be everywhere...but no plain mirrors to be had... have you thought about hanging a mirror in a strategic spot in your garden...like in a fence section or near an arbour? I like the idea but worry about song birds flying into them. Do you see lots of hummers? I have a pic from a relative who lives in Sorrento of a baby one resting in one of her planters!

I dont think my camera is as good as yours Alandra :( iv'e been experimenting the last couple of days but no where near as clear as your pic, Sadly.. but i will keep on trying :)))) I bought my GB at B&Q Lori UK..

Hi Lori, you are observant to notice the darkness of the open window space, - hadn't thought of that. The largest piece of glass, middle window pane in other words, looks like the stucco of the house walls, but as I looked closer, after reading your post, realized that's the window glass, lol. (don't even know what my own house looks like, duh). Now I can even notice the reflection of branches in the glass too.

We're on the coast, South Delta in other words, south of Vancouver, near the Canada/USA border.
No, we never have lots of hummers here, as I've seen in other people's hummer/feeder photos. The most each summer would be about 5 or 6. They seem to spend most of their time chasing each other away from the feeders, altho' we have one at front of house and one at the back.

But this past winter we had Anna's hummers here midway thru the winter, and they seem to be still here, as I saw one feeding here a few days ago. Thought they'd left before the rufous hummers returned. So maybe the Anna's are going to stay year round here now.

Hi YoungDaisy Dee. thankyou also. I hope you will soon get some good results with photos of your gazing ball. But am glad you're going to keep trying, as am sure it will work after awhile.

I don't know what success I'll have this summer tho', as it looks like the big fuchsia plant that was growing in the upper border, behind the gazing ball, is dead. And that's what attracted the hummers around the gazing ball in the first place, trying to chase "the other hummer" in the reflection, away from their fuchsia flowers, lol. So unless that bush makes a sudden spurt of growth in a hurry, we'll hafta thing of something else to put behind there :)