# General > Member's Lounge > Nature and Conservation >  The Illawarra Flame Tree in bloom

## hwchoy

The Illawarra Flame Tree (_Brachychiton acerifolius_) in the SBG is blooming.

Went to shoot it yesterday. As I always maintained, buy the biggest flash you can afford, better still get more than one, and bring them along as you never know when you needed light.

And I knew it was a good thing to hang on to Benny's EF 24/1.4*L*, the perfect glass for shooting backlit trees in difficult lighting.

The tree itself was shot with the 24/1.4L wide-angle lens and flashed, because the sun was behind the tree.

The close up of the flowers are taken with my workhorse 100/2.8 macro.

* click pix for full res *

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## valice

I have something for CPLs these days. But will a CPL be helpful with your first picture?

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## hwchoy

It will probably help a little, but this is overcast day, not sunny. Will still need to flash to fill out the backlight. Unfortunately I have a 72mm CPL but the 24/1.4 is 77mm, plus I forgot to bring it along  :Grin:

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## benny

I have some 77 mm Circular Polarising Filters if you need it.

Is the flash sufficient to fill for such a large subject?

Cheers,

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## hwchoy

ahhh let me see if I can find the ones without flash, would be an interesting photography discussion.

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## hwchoy

ok flash/no-flash being posted in photogrpahy subforum.

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## kuching

Nice flowers!!!

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