West Macs project

Hi there

Its been a really hectic past few months at work which, although a pretty lame excuse, has made it hard to find the motivation to shoot photos. However, I now have the next four or five weeks off to do little more than relax (watch cricket!), exercise and shoot as much as I can. For a while now Ive been toying with the idea of trying to produce a coffee table book on the West MacDonnell NP. Of course, the usual waves of self-doubt have made me question whether this is something acheivable or just a fanciful pipe dream. However, what I do know is that the West Macs includes some of the most spectacular country ive seen in Australia and I desperately want to share this with others. I want to do the place, its people and its wildlife justice by showing just how special it is. I have so many ideas floating around my head for shots, locations and stories and Im really excited at the prospect of pushing myself artistically further than Ive ever done before. Regardless of whether I have the ability to pull it off, Im going to enjoy giving it a solid crack!

Macropods (euros, red kangaroos and rock-wallabies) are going to be a big part of the project because: they are the largest native fauna in the park, they are so important to the parks ecology (in particular, they are the major prey for dingoes), and they are charismatic and photogenic. In light of the last couple of qualities, Im really suprised more photographers don't work intensively with them in Australia. The following photos are from my first session shooting after a long time off and Im really happy with the results. I found this young euro (common wallaroo) by chance on the Heavitree Range, west of Alice Springs. I'd just sat down to watch a couple of ringneck parrots feeding in callitris pine when this euro ambled into view about 20 metres away, feeding on grasses and herbs. It was about 30 minutes until sunset with a cloudless horizon so I knew if I could remain unnoticed I would be in for some decent light. If anyone has experience with euros, they'll know just how hard they usually are to get close to so I was keen not to blow the opportunity.

Here is one of the first shots I took, while the sun was mostly hidden behind a cloud. The euro is looking straight at me from about 10 metres away but I remained still and had the wind in my favour so she didn't wise up to me. I quite like the quality of light, with a hint of side light from the right and also the framing by the green pick (Goodenia ramelii) in the foreground.

Eventually the sun emerged from beneath the last cloud and, with some smoke haze about, gave the light a nice soft golden quality. This shot was taken as she approached to within 3 metres, still oblivious to my presence. A good demonstration of how just how much they rely on their hearing (just look at those ears!) to detect predators (dingos). Some nice backlit highlighting of the whiskers and fur.

Finally she picked up my scent and stood right up, bashed the ground with a foot (an alarm response for euros) and hopped away a couple of metres. This worked out well for me as I was able to frame her body more completely for a nice full-frame backlit shot. Unfortunately, because it was handheld I wasn't able to stop down as much as I'd like, so the body is a little soft, but still pretty stoked overall.

All shots handheld 7D, 400mm f5.6 lens @ 5.6. ISO 400-640.