Wild Places

The islands south of New Zealand and north of Antarctica provide a unique home for these birds. Remote habitats with few predators plus strong winds that favour their large wing spans make it a happy home. Wandering Albatross have the largest wing-span of any bird, reaching over 3metres, yet smaller albatross in the Mollymawk family are no less charming.

This essay has been curated from my Kimberley Coast voyage with Heritage Expeditions. They are presented here in a square format to highight how presentation can make such an impact on how an image is received. So many of the images here are ones I'd love to hang on a wall.

Little tiny birds with bright red beaks and flapping their wings like a meth addict. Puffins are awesome. Hard to believe they can fly, but they certainly do. Most of their lives are spent on the open ocean but for a few months each year they head for burrows on land to breed. The Shetlands is a great place to see the puffins, along with the graceful gannets and cute little Shetland Ponys. Images taken on the Canon 5DSR with the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sports, Canon 50mm f/1.2 and Zeiss 18mm f/3.5.

The north eastern tip of Russia is known as Chukotka, and it's a very long way from Moscow. Rugged cliffs along the Chukchi Sea are a haven for Puffins, and the long seasons of ice are a haven for Polar Bears. I joined the expedition ship Professor Kromov to get close to the wildlife. Sort of close. Bears are dangerous, Puffins are aloof, and indigenous hunters have made most wildlife in the region very shy of human activity. This region is a genuine challenge for photographers.

Three days sailing from Hobart the remote outpost of Macquarie Island is a haven for seals and penguins in search of a beach. Royal Penguins number near a million and the majestic King Penguins in the hundreds of thousands. Fewer than 1,000 people are permitted to visit Macquarie each year.

Rock Art. Wildlife. Landscapes. Sunsets. All you need is a well appointed expedition ship, a fleet of zodiacs and some great crew to guide you to the hidden gems. Rugged coastline, pink and ochre sandstone, brilliant sunshine day after day, calm flat water and easy sailing during the night between destinations.

Two weeks on safari with a great bunch of people, two terrific local guides and decades worth of experience and passion from Fredrik Broman. I rarely get to lead a photographic expedition with quite this level of skill and talent, let alone with a really great camera that is designed from the ground up for wildlife photography.

Every year I get to run an amazing photographic adventure across the Outback. We have a private jet-prop that starts in Melbourne and finishes in Darwin. We fly high and fast, making good time between shoots. On the ground we have some wonderful people to ensure our group are treated like royalty, getting into position for the best light. This year we had a lot of interest in the birds too, big and small :)

A short collection of birds enjoyed while visiting Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park in 2018. I'll let you in on a secret, most of these shots were actually taken around the hotels at Yulara, with only a few locations inside the park proving to be as fruitful. All the birds are genuinely wild, captured without the help of food or audio attractants. All I did was take slow walks through the grasslands, gardens and trails of Yulara and the national park.

I know i'm not a bird expert because I work with plenty who are. This collection of bird images from my last photo tour in Africa is by no means complete, but is intended to share the amazing diversity and spectacular characters that are flittering around the wilds of Kenya. The photos were taken in the short breaks in between game drives, when walking back to my tent or when watching the dawn roll forward over breakfast. Occasionally we would stop the Landcruiser to photograph a bustard or roller. It seems the more you get interested in the natural world the more your eyes get distracted by the ornate and charming avarians.

Davidson's Safari Camp is an old favaourite of mine, rich in rock art and wildlife. This photo essay was taken during the 2018 Grand Outback Photo Tour. All images were taken with the Lumix G9 except for a couple of drone shots. Enjoy.