As part of my website upgrade I am planning to publish regular online journal articles. This is the first entry in many years. It is on the theme of change, because there are some big ones happening in my life right now. More entries will follow, a mix of topics! Updates on life in the new place, progress on shack building and veggie gardens, field trip reports, information on photography gear and processing software and notes on the process behind my favorite images. Articles on the Meerup landscape and the plants and animals that live there. Details of my photographic expeditions into the misty forest, up rugged coastal cliffs, along white sandy beaches, diving into the cold southern ocean and exploring intriguing wetlands full of diversity. A brave new world!
Read moreBooragoon Lake - My Best Images
I started photographing birds at Booragoon Lake about three years ago. Overtime it has become one of my favourite spots. Why? There are several reasons. The small size of the lake and surrounding area has allowed me to build up a good knowledge of the species that inhabit the reserve and develop an in depth understanding of their movements and behaviour. Such knowledge increases predictability and therefore the probability of obtaining good shots. It takes time and a lot of consistent observation to know nature. The many obsessive hours I have spent at this tiny lake have greatly helped my understanding of Goshawks, Black Shouldered Kites, Hobbies, Night Heron, Spoonbills, Swamphens and White Necked Heron. Such knowledge is extremely valuable to me. It builds slowly. Each observation, each understanding is another piece in a far greater puzzle. It helps me take better photos, but, more importantly it is how I find meaning, it is how I connect and it is how I make sense of my life.
Read moreThe Best of 2016
When things get difficult in life I think of the image that came from the strange morning at the lake. The image of the Kite and the Raven powerfully represents my own difficulties, but, it seems larger than that, extending to symbolise the battles we all face in life. An ancient human struggle, forces of darkness and light vying for position within, opposing yet complimentary, different perspectives of the same wisdom, locked in a process that is never really resolved either way. It is my all time favourite image out of the tens of thousands I have captured.
Read moreWhy I take Photos
My interest in photography originates from my childhood, forty years ago, in the West Australian desert. As a kid growing up on Kalli Station a remote sheep farming property, I developed a fascination for the natural world. My spare time was spent out in the bush, wandering the creeks, granite outcrops and breakaways that surrounded our homestead with Jacko, my dog. We would walk for hours, looking for waterholes, aboriginal carvings, birds, animals, tracks and different plants. Sometimes we would take the motorbike to a distant rock or breakaway that held the promise of wondrous finds.
Read moreThe Best of 2015
Warning............This is a bit of a long and rambly post.....me looking back over the year and really just putting words to a whole lot of thoughts mostly for my own purposes.............you can skip straight to my favourite 2015 images at the bottom!!
Terry was determined to get better and against all odds he has done it!! Over the course of the year he has got stronger and stronger. He has had very few long term effects from his treatment, and is now back into the full swing of life, fixing things, building things and making things.
Read moreReality
I have struggled throughout my life to find space where I feel authentic and where things are real. Within the mundane complexity of jobs, relationships, family, friends and daily life there are so many unsaid expectations and conflicting priorities that it is easy to lose perspective and clarity.
Read moreHolland Track - March 2015
We left Perth on Saturday 28th of March at around 7.00am and drove to Hyden where we had lunch before heading out on the Hyden-Norseman road which intersects with the Holland Track near Emu Rocks.
Read moreOne Crowded Hour
In my teenage years, I came across the above stanza derived from Thomas Osbert Mordaunt's poem 'The Call' in the book 'One Crowded Hour' written by Tim Bowden. The book documented the life and death of Australian war photojournalist Neil Davis who is best remembered for his work on the front line in the confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia in Borneo and the Vietnam War.
Read moreLuck
Luck seems to play an enormous role in photography and for that matter life. This week I am having my own very personal bird drought. There just doesn't seem to be birds anywhere. I have tried all the usual spots and they seem devoid, even the regular stilts, ibis and pelicans are in short supply
Read moreLake Towerrinning
On a recent trip to the South West we spend a few days camped on the shore of Lake Towerrinning near Boyup Brook. It is a large freshwater lake with surprisingly clean deep water surrounded by farmland. Adjacent to the main lake is a smaller shallow salt lake filled with bleached tree skeletons, stinking black mud and a slightly sinister atmosphere.
Read moreRegard Life as a Dream
Lama Atisha Dipamkara lived from 982 to 1040 and is credited with re-vitalising the Buddhist traditions in Tibet and compiling wisdom from several different lineages together in his text Lamp to the Path of Enlightenment. This text outlines the stages of the Buddhist path as originally taught by Buddha and effectively forms a road map for spiritual practice.
Read moreBaby Darters - D1, D2 & D3
A few days after Xmas I visited the Darter nest. I spent about half an hour watching and photographing and then..........a tiny head popped out, too small and too far away to get any clear shots. It was over a week before I made it back, this time two heads.
Read more2014 - Oesophageal Cancer & Our Wedding
2014 has been the most unusual in my life................ Divergence from the norm started in January. For some time my husband had not been well. He had been having chest pain, tiredness, general malaise and dizzy spells.
Read moreNew Years Resolution
Last year I decided to give up alcohol. I was drinking for the wrong reasons and it had spiralled out of control and was causing significant problems. There was an obvious risk of life descending into something ugly which I didn't like the look of, so I stopped and am happy that I did.
Read moreExpect Nothing
Some mornings very little happens down the River. You wait and watch……….The Terns are fishing on the other side, there is a solitary Pelican way off and the Osprey flies high in the other direction. This morning was one of those and it bought to mind two Buddhist sayings by Pema Chödrön, "Expect Nothing" and "Abandon Hope".
Read moreStillness
Sometimes it seems to me as if loneliness and sadness pervades life on a daily basis. We are so busy with our lives, rushing around, trying to fulfill perceived expectations and making endless exhausting attempts to feel good or stave off difficult emotions.
Read moreSeeing the Seagull
Until very recently I have never paid any attention to Seagulls, written off in my mind as boring pests, a brief glance was all I ever afforded. I first noticed it about a month ago, at the river alone, no Ospreys, no Egrets, no Herons, no Spoonbills to steal my attention, only seagulls...............
Read moreMaya Angelou's Poem - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
I was going through my photos and came across one I took some time ago on a trip to Asia. It is a golden faced hawk with a strong face and defiant eyes. A beautiful bird trapped in a cage. When you look closely at the photo you can see the reflection of the bars in its eye.
Read moreI came upon a spoonbill.............
Upset at various things I had left the office and headed to a nearby lake to have my lunch. In the car was my new camera which I grabbed thinking it was a good opportunity to practice using it.
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