Bill Hatcher Photography

Food for Thought

As an adventure photographer you develop a keen sense of curiosity to a degree that it becomes almost second nature, but it is still important to keep your eyes wide open and always be thinking outside the box. In the past few years that I have been living and working from my new home base in Tucson, Arizona I've found myself working on jobs that I would have never imagined a few years ago. Subjects as diverse as exploring wild jaguar habitat, tree reforestation in Mexico, hydro projects on the Upper Amazon, tourist development in the Grand Canyon and youth programs to develop green space on the Mexico Borderlands. To me all these stories share the same thread people engaging with nature in the outdoors. 

When I was contacted to do a story for NPR about an organization in Tucson enabling U.N. refugees to gather food, called gleaning, from trees growing in public places and neighborhood yards around the city of Tucson and Phoenix you can bet I was interested. I had not heard of gleaning before this shoot, but on the day of the shoot I was to learn plenty. The most shocking revelation happened when I was given a tour of my local shopping center, the El Con Mall, there I was shown 40,000 pounds of quality dates hanging from the 90 or so decorative date palms scattered in the parking lot. I had visited the place many times, but had never thought to see the palms as a source of food. If the dates are not harvested soon they will simply rot on the trees. Here is a link to the NPR article.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/10/26/559550143/healing-through-harvesting-gleaning-unwanted-fruit-helps-refugees-in-need

The Sonoran Institute: Mexican Farmers Working for Conservation

I was excited when the Sonoran Institute recently sent me to photograph their Colorado River Delta restoration project in Baja California, Mexico. The Sonoran Institute is a U.S. non-profit that works to

Sonoran Institute: The Mexico Connection

The year 2014 seemed to involve a string of amazing photo shoots and travels. For me the real highlight was settling into my new home in Tucson and reconnecting to the landscape and people around the South West. Looking back over the year I discovered there were many occasions where conversations and ensuing connections with people led me down creative roads I might not have otherwise explored.

 I'll share one of those encounters. A magazine assignment for Arizona Highways sent me to Mexico to photograph scientist Fransisco Zamorra who works for the conservation group the Sonoran Institute. In the course of the shoot Fransisco, who is also an avid wildlife photographer, introduced me to the Colorado

National Geographic: Saving and Studying Tasmania's Giant Trees

Cool to see my photos on the National Geographic web site.

This past year National Geographic asked me to document tall trees in Tasmania, Australia. It was a fantastic experience spending time in the giant eucalyptus forest with tall tree scientist Dr.Steve Sillett and other tree and forest experts. We climbed several 80 to 90 meter tall eucalyptus trees. I also had a chance to spend time in a protest tree with environmentalist Miranda Gibson. She spent a record 457 days in a  tree platform 65 meters up in an Alpine ash.

The best moment during my 5 weeks in the forest was one morning watching the scientist in a 500 year old Eucalyptus regnans located in the Florentine Valley. The photo here is from that morning.

 

 

Wildfire in Warrumbungles National Park

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. 

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Long Sydney Hike

Doing some low tide exploration and crab chasing in Waratah Bay, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

Besides the Sydney Harbour and beaches Sydney's green belt of National Parks is it's best natural asset. The two Sydney area National Parks I've visited the most since I've been here is Lane Cove and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Parks.

Melanie crossing the rocks in Lords Creek

On the hottest day yet this summer, a sweltering 35c, Melanie and I decide to do a longish hike of around 25 kilometers in one of the nearby city parks.We considered the coast walk in Royal National Park, but

River Sign

A quiet morning paddling on the Lane Cove River near Sydney with a traffic sign warning boaters the water will be ending soon.

 

Bike Burn

City biking has a few highlights. Rode through this recent burn on the North Shore near Sydney. This place seemed like a perfect spot to stop and shoot a photo. I had my little Sony RX100 camera and got the shot. Melanie wasn't able to ride through without getting covered in soot.

Going Sub-Alpine in Australia

When someone mentioned to me that the Barrington Tops National Park in New South Wales had lots of sub-alpine mountain peaks I went there to see what there was. I am from Colorado so sub-alpine terrain there is something totally different than what I have found in Australia. In the Tops, where the highest peak is Brumlow Top 1,586 metres (5,203 ft) above sea level, the landscape is densely covered in eucalyptus.

The sub-alpine forest in the tops includes extensive stands of snow gum forest. What's really cool is what happens when you drop from the peaks into the creek bottoms. You discover yourself in unique rain forest environments, filled with gnarly ancient beech trees and ferns. I didn't expect two such completely different environments within meters of one another.

 

 

 

 

 

From the Deck

It seems like it's been raining for days in Sydney, but a couple nights ago a wind storm pushed over the city. I set up my camera on my balcony and watched the winds blow through a nearby tree. The low clouds scrurrying over the tree tops reflected this weird light cast from the streets and highrises. Sometimes there's no need to travel that far to see something extraordinary.