I am very pleased to announce that one of my works ‘Portrait of Skipper’ has been selected and accepted to be part of the 2010 Nillumbik Prize at Montsalvat in Eltham, Melbourne. Although portraiture is not my ‘bread and butter’, Montsalvat is one of my favourite places in Australia for photography (I frequently go there to photograph my kids or sometimes just for a coffee at the small cafe) and when I came across this gentlemen in the grounds I just knew I had to photograph him – thankfully he kindly obliged. I am very pleased with this photograph and very humbled to have it accepted into the gallery as part of the 2010 Nillumbik Prize. This work will be on display at Montsalvat from the 22nd of June this year.
Many thanks to the alert reader and follower of my Blog who sent over the following screen grab from the ABC news on Monday and Tuesday nights this week. Looks like the ABC flipped the photograph in Photoshop so Paul could stand on the right hand side – I will have to remember that next time I submit work for publication to a news station.
Dont know if anyone else saw it – but another of my Landscape photographs ‘Cloud Warp’ taken in the Yarra Valley in Victoria was featured on the ABC news in the weather segment both last night and this evening.
Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am a big fan of Nick Brandt’s African wildlife photography. I recently attended his current exhibition at Source Photographica in Melbourne; which was truly amazing and inspirational. If you have the opportunity to see any of Nick’s work I highly recommend taking the time to do so.
The cost of ownership of most of Nick’s limited edition prints unfortunately places them out of reach of many (myself included); which is a shame as the prints truly are beautiful. However, the next best thing has just been announced with his new Limited Edition signed Artists book coming this September. The book is now available for Pre-order from Source Photographica in Melbourne – I have of course immediately ordered a copy. There are 1000 copies available in Australia and 3000 worldwide and I would expect these to sell out very quickly.
The more time I spend photographing wildlife the more I am enjoying it – what started out as a bit of an experiment to see what sort of wildlife photographs I could make as a precursor to a possible African safari next year is slowly turning into a type and style of photography that I will be actively seeking out far more often. There is definitely an African safari in my photographic future!. The Lion enclosure at Werribee Open Range Zoo is about as close as one can get to an African Safari without leaving Australia. Its a wonderful location for wildlife photography – and you don’t need super exotic glass to get great shots. You can get really quite close to many of the animals; especially if you book onto the open top safari drive (and I recommend that you do). All of the enclosures are open range in nature; giving the animals real room to move and roam in an environment far closer to their natural world than most zoo cages. As a result the animals tend to be more active, more alert and make far better photographic subjects.
For this photograph I used the 300mm F2.8L IS lens (my favourite telephoto lens for Wildlife) and lay on the ground in order to get a different perspective to the average lion shot. By lying on the ground at the Lions level I was better able to capture the lovely cross light from the late afternoon Autumn sun. I really like this photograph as its clearly a decisive moment in time – the Lioness on the prowl with a keen eyed glare and a purposeful stride.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 