Nature Photography with Sarah

"My love for Australia's natural environments is something that I have had ever since I was very young. Camping and travelling are things that I have always enjoyed with my family, and for Andrew and I, spending time in the bush with each other and friends has always been a part of our life together.

In Australia, we have a tradition of fine wilderness photography, a natural response to our unique landscapes. Like many others, I have been particularly inspired by the work of the Tasmanian wilderness photographer Peter Dombrovskis.

However, it was only when Andrew and I began producing nature albums, that I started focusing seriously on my own photography. Being thrown in at the deep end, I had little choice but to learn through my own experience.

In the past I have used a Nikon F3 camera, with 24, 28, 50 and 500mm lenses, and professional colour transparency (slide) film - most often a low speed film such as Fuji Velvia (50 ISO) or Fuji Provia (100 ISO), as these give the greatest colour saturation and clarity.

Recently however I have gone digital - and now use a Canon 30D with 16-35mm, 28-135mm zoom lenses for landscape, and a 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter for birds and wildlife. This removes the need for carrying and protecting film, particularly in hot tropical climates. Our field trips to Sulawesi, Nepal and India were a major test for this equipment. All digital images are stored on a Vistascan portable 30 Gig hard drive, which is about the size of a palm pilot. After 7 weeks in the field, I had taken 4000 images, and this came to around 13 Gig.

I often use long exposure times - many of the photos here were taken with 2-8 second exposures. This requires the use of a sturdy tripod at all times, but allows me to shut the lense down to achieve the greatest depth of field, or photograph the often beautiful effects of subtle natural light.

I love the perspective one gains when you look at the bush through a lens - the way one can accentuate a particular feature of a landscape, or focus upon a detail that would otherwise be quite ordinary. This often leads to a consideration of what to leave out of an image, as being as important as what to include. Both Andrew and I feel very privileged in the work that we do, and I hope that the images presented here convey some of the fragile beauty and wonder of our natural world."

Nature Recording with Andrew
Our Home in the Bush