A massive fire, called the Wambelong fire, is currently burning out of control in and around the Warrumbungles National Park. I spent an amazing couple of weeks in the Park, as well as in the nearby community of Coonabarabran, shooting a story about the Park for this month's Australian Geographic magazine. My thoughts go out to all of those who have lost so much in this fire. Fortunately at this time there has been no human loss with the fire, but the loss in property, buildings, wildlife and livestock in and around the Park has been tremendous.
A recent photo assignment for Australian Geographic magazine sent me to Warrumbungles National Park in New South Wales, Australia to have a look around. Here's a link Here to the article and photos. Usually my skills with ropes, rock climbing and the like come into play as tools for access on most of my assignments, but when I was in the Warrumbungles, rock climbing and hikes were the story.
The shoot reminded me again how fortunate I am to visit these places and spend time with the incredible people who live, work and play in these parks. On this photo shoot, as with all of my photo assignments, I am in touch with and being assited by so many people. Their generous time and help makes these projects a success. Thanks to Warrumbungles Park Ranger Roger Row, in the picture below, and all of the other great people I met and climbed with in the Warrumbungles and showed me why this park is such an amazing place.
You can check out a column I wrote in the Australian magazine Outdoor, now on the news stands. You can read the column on the Outdoor magazine web site. I've been writing this photo adventure column in Outdoor magazine for the last year. I vary the topics from the pratical to adventure photography field tips and personal experiences. It's been a blast sharing 25 years of photo experience with others.
I am packing now for a job next week in Western Australia. I am excited about this trip because it will be my first time in that country. Deciding what photo gear to bring for this shoot is tricky because the assignment includes a week of pedaling 400 km off pavement on trails with no support vehicle. Will I ever I do a photo assignment that was actually easy? The big challenge on this assignment is I will have to carry all my own gear. My solution is
In the July/August 2011 Australia Geographic magazine issue 103 you will see my photo coverage about the state of Australia forests and the forestry industry. This is a very hot topic right now in Australia, the 18 page feature story includes images I made in the course of shooting for the story in forests in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.The photos look at the modern face of logging in Australia's public forests as well as portraits of people involved and working in Australia's forest industry and forest conservation.
My first photo column for Australia Geographic Outdoor is in the winter July/August 2011 issue of magazine. This will be a regular column that focuses on photography in the outdoors. I look forward to sharing more photo adventures and techniques in the upcoming issues of Outdoor.
Click the link below or (here) to view images I made for a story feature Broken Hill: After the Rains published this month in Australia Geographic magazine. The Australian outback around Western New South Wales and the Darling River Basin look very different now following months of local heavy rains and flood waters flowing from Queensland. The best part about this assignment was the chance to witness a once in a lifetime phenomenon and a desert transformed. When shooting the aerial photos for this story I discovered every dry lake bed filled with water, the rivers over their banks and the red desert turned green. And it appears the continued flooding in Queensland will bring even more water to the desert.
Aerial photography is fun but I don't get to do enough of it. I just put some new aerial photos in the New Works section on my web site (here). I also wrote a piece about it in my column in the January issue of Outdoor Photographer. I'll post a link to that when they put it on their web site.
There are many photographers who specialize in aerial photography, but for me it makes up about 1% of the work I do. Usually my aerial work has to support a story I am shooting. These aerial photos are nothing like what I normally shoot because they are just beautiful scenes I have seen when flying to or from assignments. The photo here is the photo that will run with the Outdoor Photography story.
This photo is not in Australia it's actually 7,000 miles away in Utah's southern high desert country. I brought this photo out to show to science writer and author Karen McGhee. A couple of weeks ago Karen and I were
One way is by entering the National Geographic photo competition. The deadline is 30 Nov.2010. Click on the image below and it will take you to the National Geographic web site with the entry details.
Of course the more typical way is through hard work, pursuing great stories and always working toward getting your work published, exhibited and talked about. Entering photo competitions with top magazines like National Geographic, Smithsonian and PDN can be part of this formula.
