Photography trip to the Australian Outback
A TRIP with a professional photographer helps visitors capture great pictures and new skills.
IN THE Outback you can see millions of stars. The Milky Way is so close you want to reach out and touch it. How do I know this? I'm sitting in the dark on the outskirts of Home Valley Station. There's just seven of us, a four-wheel drive and a few cameras in the middle of the Kimberley.
With no cities for hundreds of kilometres, it should be peaceful. And it is, until a howl cuts the silence.
"Are those dingoes?" I manage to squeak out. "Yep," says Jamie, our Scottish guide, "plenty of dingoes out here."
"Snakes?" I ask. "Oh yes, but most of them aren't venomous."
My 1.8m tall, 60cm wide tour guide is far from home, stretched out on the dirt of a dusty cattle clearing. The ground is flat and smooth, trampled down by thousands of hooves over the years. He stares up at the sky without a care in the world.
Sitting as close I can without being rude, I try to blend into his shadow so the dingoes think twice about creeping up on us.
I enlist my photography teacher Ewen Bell to stand as a shield on the other side. The only threat left is above. Of course a bat decides to swoop just centimetres above my head.
Once I've stopped shrieking, and the jibes about Dracula die down, we're back to the occasional click of a shutter and the silence of the bush. It's just us and the dingoes, the snakes and the bats.
Halfway through Air Adventure Australia's two-week Grand Outback Photography Tour, this is our crash course in shooting star trails. Tonight's one-hour shoot is a practice run for tomorrow, when we'll drive to an isolated boab grove for a longer session.
The minutes tick by slowly; marked by the click of a shutter every 30 seconds, and I ponder all the ways I can get out of another night shoot.
When the stopwatch finally beeps I've decided there's no way I'm going out tomorrow, but by the time we've driven back to the homestead I've already decided how I want to compose my next shot. When images of the starry sky pop up on to the computer, the idea of three hours in the dirt doesn't seem so bad.
I've caught the shutter bug. And I've got it bad. This is what happens when you're covering 4200 nautical miles (8500km) to locations hand-picked for their picture potential. You can't help but take a good shot. And you want more.
Air Adventure Australia was established by Rob Dyer in the 1970s. A pioneer of private plane tourism and a driving force in the establishment of outback cattle stations, his legacy lives on in the Rob Dyer Outback Jet, a twin-engine Cessna 411 Conquest II with plenty of zip.
Rob's son John now runs the business and is sticking to his father's non-traditional methods. For him, it's the luxury of the experience, not gold taps and sky-high thread counts. His motto is "why not", so when our professional photographer Ewen wants a few horses rounded up for a shoot at the Pentecost River Crossing, no problem.
The horsemen turn up just as the sun is starting to set. They put their steeds through their paces as we keep the shutters clicking, trotting back and forth along the riverbed just to make sure we've all got the shot.
The cast and crew of Baz Luhrmann's epic movie Australia spent a few weeks filming at Home Valley Station, and while it might not be Hugh Jackman up there, our horseman Cyril has a killer smile. His horse Coconut certainly gives an Oscar-worthy performance prancing in the shadows of the Cockburn Range.
This very special location shoot isn't unusual. Each day there's a new, hyper-real experience. We're thrown into the deep end, with Ewen as a safety net, across the spectrum of photography genres. Day one is dirt mounds and tractors in the minefields of Coober Pedy. Day two it's macro shots of seeds and ant nests in Kings Canyon, day three we break the record for the slowest rim walk around the actual canyon, our lenses trained on every angle.
GALLERY: AUSTRALIA'S AMAZING OUTBACK
By day five, wildlife in the Mary River Wetlands, I feel I've reached total immersion. A nightmare wakes me in the early hours (only just before my alarm because when it comes to bird photography, the early bird really does catch the worm). In my dreams the 70-200mm lens I've procured for this trip tumbles over the side of the boat into croc-infested waters. My subconscious debates whether it's worth risking a limb for a $3000 piece of equipment.
That morning my comrades empathise and insist they'd lend me their gear if the unthinkable happened. Thankfully all lenses remain firmly attached as we sneak up and zoom in on tiny kingfishers perched on reeds, sea eagles sitting high and mighty in their lofty nests, snake birds drying in the sun and migratory magpie geese who take flight in perfect trios.
The Mary River National Park is 180km east of Darwin. It's much smaller than Kakadu but for John it has the perfect crowd-free experience. When Kakadu became too much of a tourist trap, his father hopped in his plane and found the twisting river systems and lush wetlands of the Mary River. Air Adventure Australia has been coming here ever since.
When we first arrive at Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge, owner Dave Walker gives us time to wash the dust from our clothes and drench ourselves in insect repellent before we're off in all-terrain vehicles to catch sunset on the floodplain.
The sunset's a dud - too many clouds - but the bumpy, bug-ridden ride was worth the effort. There's one special moment when a herd of brahman cows thunders past. Did I mention we're on the Sultan of Brunei's private cattle station? Dave maintains the Opium Creek Station airstrip (a patch in the field that smells like a wheat pack when we hurtle down) but it hasn't seen much action since the live export bans.
By halfway through the trip we've settled into a routine. At night Ewen shows us a slide show of his best shots. He's with us every step of the way so we see what we could have done differently and the angle that would have worked better. He tactfully doesn't just shoot the same scenes as us - that would be too demoralising. Instead he trains his lenses on us.
We become the stars of his shoots - never have I seen myself look so happy carrying 3kg of camera gear around my neck. But who couldn't look ecstatic when he captures the moment you've splashed under the King George Falls?
His fast shutter speeds freeze droplets of mist in the air and catch the bubbles in my glass of bubbly. And yes, a dip in the falls with a glass of champagne is as amazing as it looks through his lens.
GO2 PHOTO TOUR
Doing there
Air Adventure Australia's private tours are all-inclusive, with transport aboard the Outback Jet, tours, activities, accommodation and food and drinks provided. Its itineraries range from three to 14-day trips covering the Outback, Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, Lake Eyre, Cape York and Tasmania. The Grand Outback Photography Tour runs once a year. It includes tuition from professional photographer Ewen Bell and visits to some of the best location shoots in the country.
Air Adventure Australia: freecall 1800 033 160.
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