On The Beaton Track: September 2002
Travels and Treks
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, assignments have been in my local area recently. I’ve completed the one on Royal National Park and it turned out to take much longer than I expected. It was a real eye-opener to discover how much wild space is still available in that well-trampled park. There are very few roads through the park and only a couple of the many beaches can be accessed by road. That leaves thousands of hectares as the domain of walkers. Even a short stroll off the main road brings you abruptly into the shrouded silence of a rainforest, or into a sunny open heathland where you feel as free as the sea eagle soaring above. Like I said, an eye-opener of a place. You can see it in issue #69 of Australian Geographic, due out in January 2003.
My next assignment, and this one was also commissioned by Australian Geographic, is on owls. Now that will be a photographic challenge; birds are hard to photograph at the best of times but add the complexity of night time... Well, I just hope I get the shots! This story will appear in issue #70 in April 2003.
Recent Publications
They say frogs are popular subjects. Well, one little photo of mine has been getting a real work out lately. And you can hardly tell it’s a frog! Maybe it’s because of its cute name, but the Pobblebonk has appeared as the wraparound cover of a lovely book called Frog Call from New Holland Publishers. It’s also been used as a poster at Gordon TAFE in Geelong and it appears in Melbourne Water’s revamped website.
Another publication to come out soon is from the Australian Biological Resources Study. To illustrate the popular subject of biodiversity, the booklet will feature almost 30 of my photos. Proves I’ve been putting in some time behind the camera lately!
Recent photos that I took in the Centre are getting a good workout by Australia Post in their new series on bush tucker. Although my photos have made it onto stamps in the past, in this series they are featured larger as postcards and maxi-cards.
Books, Exhibitions and Presentations
If you’re getting tired of hearing about the book Life in the Tall Eucalypt Forests (you can't blame me—my first book!), then you can expect some peace soon. The book has sold out. It took about 18 months which is not a bad accomplishment in the publishing world. I’ve kept a few copies in case anyone contacts me directly—like that photographer from the USA did. I was so curious as to why he’d want an Australian book. I emailed him and he explained that he was coming to Australia to photograph the Mountain Ash forests himself as part of some scientific research. Good one!
The Melbourne Water Life in the Tall Eucalypt Forests Exhibition opened at a new venue in Victoria. For the month of June it was hanging in a beautiful space, called the Gordon Gallery, which is part of the Gordon Institute of TAFE in Geelong. I had the honour of helping to launch the exhibition along with the Gordon Institute’s Master Plan for new development works. The $1 million worth of building projects will follow environmentally responsible guidelines.
The day after the launch I was scheduled to speak to a body of students and staff and, thanks to Nick and his expertise with technology, we managed to give quite a polished presentation. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. It was so refreshing to be in an environment where different departments (in this instance the marketing team and the staffs of the Visual Arts and Natural Resource Management departments) all worked together to bring off a large event.
I was asked to give another presentation to the St George League’s Club Photographic Society. This one was on the night of Thursday, 8 August at the St George Leagues Club itself. It was on “Turning a Hobby into a Profession”. There was a large turnout—about 65 people. This club is a tremendously active, enthusiastic one, the largest in the Sydney area. And as an audience they were the greatest—full of questions which, I think, is the biggest reward a speaker can have. And of course they demolished Nick when they found out, after the presentation, about his digital expertise.
Until next time,
