My favourite 5 images ever .......
After spending over two years exploring and photographing Australia’s incredible landscapes it would be fair to say I have got a few photographs to share. From dramatic waterfalls in far North Queensland, wild seascapes in the Northwest to remote mountain ranges in the Ikara-Flinders ranges national park in South Australia, Australia truely has some of the most mind blowing landscapes you will ever see. Over the last 2 years I have taken over a terabyte of raw images, out of those thousands of images I have narrowed them down more and more. Here I have my 5 favourite images ever. These have been collected from every corner of our amazing diverse country. Here I offer the insight into what went into these images, the story behind them and why these are my favourites.
Razorback Ridge Ikara-Flinders ranges national park South Australia
The sun rise painting light over the amazing Razorback ridge in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National park.
We went to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park at the start of winter 2020. We had done very little research before heading into the National Park and had few plans or expectations. When we saw this view on our way to the campsite I knew I needed to shoot a sunrise here. We got up at 5 in the morning to make it to this spot for sunrise, it was extremely cold and actually quiet frosty. I have always been an ultra wide angle kind of shooter and something that I really like about this image is that it was shot at 55mm to help compress the image. This is very different from how I would normally shoot. I have always struggled in composing images at longer focal lengths and this image just worked out so well. For me this was a massive achievement to get out of my comfort zone and capture such an amazing moment when the light start to cross the mountain peaks. This is a morning I will never forget.
Zillie Falls Atherton Tablelands Far North Queensland
The under rated Zillie Falls. This waterfall is hard to get a good view of but it is well worth the effort.
Zillie Falls in my opinion is one of Australia’s most underrated water falls. It is hard to do this waterfall justice in a photograph and is almost certainly twice as big and powerful as any image will ever show. Located in tropical North Queensland and part of the Atherton waterfall circuit this is an easily accessible waterfall but only viewed from the top. If you want to get a good view of this waterfall you are going to have to work for it. Elke and I both fell on the muddy, steep goat track to the bottom of this falls and the rock hopping adventure to this composition was far from easy. Rock hopping up a creek with thousands of dollars worth of camera gear on wet, slippery rocks is always a bit nerve wracking but in this case well worth it. My only opportunity to shoot this spot was noon on a bright sunny day, these are not ideal waterfall shooting conditions at all. In fact I almost didn’t bother pursuing this shot, but for some reason I did. Once I got to my composition I was amazed to see the dramatic flow from the waterfall was making so much mist that was all being back lit by the bright sun. This resulted in some of the most amazing natural glow I have ever seen, once I returned to my computer to edit these images I realised something bad had happened. My SD card had some how deleted all my images except this one and one other of the same waterfall. Some how the only 2 images left where the only ones worth keeping, things just work out sometimes I guess.
Ospreys Nest Eco beach resort North West Kimberly Region
The Ospreys nest, located on a remote stretch of coast 130 km south of Broome.
The beautiful ospreys nest, located along a remote stretch of coast in Australia’s Northwest. This rock formation is appropriately named for the large ospreys nest built on the peak. Believe it or not this was not the image I had planned on shooting when I headed out to shoot seascapes that particular sunset. Further up the coast there is a large cave that I had set out to shoot, after struggling to find a composition that I liked I left quiet dis heartened. By the time I was passing the ospreys nest again it was well into blue hour and I was using a torch just to see where I was going. I just had a hunch that this image could work, i still had my camera set up on my tripod so I thought what the hell I might as well take the shot. I only took this one frame and then left so it was safe to say I really did not expect this image to turn out at all. Incredibly this one random shot I did not even bother to compose properly has turned out to be one of my favourite images ever. I just lover every thing about it from the insane remote location, the giant rock structures and the soft even light radiating of the rocks.
Cape Tribulation Daintree Rainforest Far North Queensland
Stormy mornings on Cape Tribulation, where the ocean meets the rainforest. Truely something you have to see to believe.
This image was shot on the beach right out the front of the Cape Tribulation Resort. Cape Tribulation is an area in the amazing Daintree rainforest where the rainforest meets the ocean in some of the most Dramatic scenes I have ever witnessed. Conditions in this part of the world are very unpredictable and we had rain at some point every day we where there, we also had sunshine every day as well. This particular morning I woke ape up to rain on the tent, not a good sign. I decided to get up and try my luck any way and try find some kind of composition to shoot. I really wanted to show the rainforest and the ocean at the same time but that proved incredibly difficult. I ended up finding this dead tree on the beach where the high tide was flowing right around. I was again surprised how this shot turned out, at the time I really not excited by this image but now I get this amazing feeling every time I see it. In the end thats what an image should do make you feel.
Lonely road Finch Hatton North Queensland
The Milkyway arching over a road near the infamous Finch Hatton gorge.
This image was taken in the Finch Hatton national park area in North Queensland while we where living in Mackay. This is probably the most work and planning I have put into an image. Using the Photopills app I was able to plan when the Milky Way would be perfectly arching over this road. Back when this was shot I was still using my Canon 80D, far from an ideal astro setup. I headed out to this spot after work and arrived at about 11 that night, I then waited for about an hour and a half until the Milky Way was in the exact spot I wanted to compose this image. I was lucky that this remote area has little to no traffic over night and I was able to setup my tripod in the middle of the road for roughly 5-6 hours without having to move it. I started by taking my sky exposures, this is a 4 image panorama but due to my camera’s terrible low light capabilities to get decent image quality I had to stack each shot of the sky 20 times. So I shot 80 sky exposures over 4 seperate shots that where then stacked and merged into a panorama in Photoshop. Then I waited several hours until the very first light and shot the same 4 compositions but this time at 3 minute BULB exposures to get the best/natural lighting foreground exposures. After this long night I headed home with the 84 images that comprise this one single image. The 4 3minute exposures where merged into a panorama, then the 80 sky exposures stacked and merged into a panorama. These 2 images where then blended into the image you see, I have edited this image many times. I love this image, the time that went into and the final product but It also haunts me and I think I will never tire of re editing it. I will never be 100% happy with this image, but at a the same time I love it.
“ These images are available for print so if you are interested don’t hesitate to get in contact with me. ”
These are my favourite images at the moment, they change from time to time and it is incredibly difficult to choose only 5 images out of the 1000s that have been taken over the past 2 and half years. Looking at this images gives me a feeling of accomplishment and just reminds me of some of the amazing times we had on this trip. I very much look forward to printing these images and showing them at the Bush Gatherings Art Gallery that I will be hosting once we get home. These images are available for print so if you are interested don’t hesitate to get in contact with me.