I have been thinking of starting a new blog for wildlife photography for some time. I won't go into details of what has held me back, suffice to say this has sat on the backburner for several years. I was recently challenged to post a week's worth of nature photographs to facebook for people to see, and it got me thinking and remembering how much I love the storytelling aspect around the creation of memorable images. And so finally, this is what has made me come back to blogging, and so it is what I will start with.

Nature Photography Challenge Day 1: Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus)

The story behind this photo is short and simple. When I first picked up a camera (I can't remember exactly when, but probably when I was not quite a teenager) it was a compact point and shoot film camera with (I imagine) a 50mm lens built in. At the time I was completely obsessed by David Attenborough documentaries (that never went away by the way), and was determined I was going to use this dinky little camera to take National Geographic-quality images. On a family trip, I decided I was going to photograph a Superb Fairy-wren. My parents scoffed, and said that camera would never take a good picture of such a small bird. And, well, they were totally right. The film came back from Kodak, and my wren was a tiny little dark dot in the middle of a sea of green grass. My family made fun of me about this for the next ten years.

Fast forward to a little trip I did around Tasmania, shortly before I began working at the Broome Bird Observatory. I was staying at Freycinet National Park, and finally, after all that time, managed the first shot of a Superb Fairy-wren I was truly happy with. These little guys are my favourite bird, and one of the things that inspired me to become a wildlife photographer.

Here are some of the other shots from Freycinet National Park that trip (most of my shots from then are unpublishable!)

Coles Bay, Freycinet National Park 

Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park

A Bennett's Wallaby, the Tasmanian subspecies of Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)


Stay tuned for more tomorrow!