Hi, I am a landscape and nature photographer based in Melbourne, Australia and enjoy using my camera to explore our remaining wild places and better connect with nature.
Before getting to the topic of this newsletter, some exciting news. My image of a tree in fog called Dawn’s embrace (shown in this post) is a finalist in the Landscape category of the 2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. This means it will be part of the exhibition of work in the South Australian Museum, opening in August. It will be quite a thrill to have my printed work included amongst some fantastic images.
All the finalists can be found here (link).
A couple of Saturdays ago, I woke up to a beautiful cold and foggy morning. After a relatively dry and warm Autumn and start to winter, finally we were getting some cold and wintery conditions. As the fog continued to thicken, I knew all my Saturday chores were on hold.
I headed down to my favourite urban bushland – Yarra Bend State Park. As I have talked about previously (here), it is an extensive area of parkland and bush, a 5 minute drive away, and I know every bend, hill and tree.
As I drove to the park, I decided to focus on trees and had a plan to go to three separate parts of the park – an area with mostly European trees in open space, some eucalypts that were more clumped together and, if the fog held out, to the native bushland along the Yarra River.
I absolutely love trees and I am always taking portraits of them. One of the advantages of parkland over a forest is that the trees are often isolated, so it is much easier to emphasis the individuality of each tree. Over the next two hours, I had one of my most productive sessions for a long time. What I realised, as I worked through these images on the computer over the next week or so, was that I had a number of distinct looks to the images.
At my first location, I immediately knew they would be best as black and white. Although the light was quite bright, it was flat, so the images were all about shape and contrast and I was able to emphasis the bright glow from an unseen sun. I did initial try a square crop in camera but I was forcing it, so I left it at 3x2.
I then moved to another area where the trees were more clumped together. The light was getting brighter and more directional. These are my absolute favourite conditions for tree portraits. As you can see below, the light brings out the shape of the trunk and the branches, while leaving the foliage relatively dark.
As I was heading back to the car I noticed an area with more distant fog and some trees bathed in warming light. I really like this look – the trees feel isolated, slightly surreal, with a focus on the colour and texture of the trunk.
I then moved closer to the river. The fog was still strong but lifting, resulting in moments of direct light shining through. I have a few images with this “spotlight” look from previous occasions. It has a particular feel to it, where the subject is bathed in almost artificially bright light surrounded by darker areas. These conditions are not common, and I am not sure what I will do with these images. I just feel they may grow into something.
Photographers often talk about the importance of developing their style or look. This may be the case for commercial photographers selling a look to clients or social media influencers who want to keep their gallery clean. But for me, it’s different looks for different subjects, locations and emotion.
I recall someone saying that a photographer’s style evolves as habits develop over time. What works well, get repeated. Being focussed on maintaining a particular style can result in self-imposed constraints or a reluctance (perhaps sub-consciously) to experiment and try different approaches. Just as I want to change the aspect ratio, I want my look to change to meet my intentions. This particular morning was a great example of the value in different looks for the subject and scene in front of me.
How often do you default to tried and tested techniques?
I love your photos, James (I am also a great lover of trees). I especially like the second set with the subdued colors, but they are all lovely :-)
Love these!