Heart of the Nation: Oyster Bridge 6701

IT'S tough being an ocean-loving kid when you grow up in the Pilbara mining town of Newman, in a desert of red dirt and dry, searing heat.

Oyster Bridge

IT'S tough being an ocean-loving kid when you grow up in the Pilbara mining town of Newman, marooned 400km inland in a desert of red dirt and dry, searing heat.

Jamie-Lee Marshman always longed for the holidays, when her parents, who worked for BHP Billiton, would pack their three kids into the car and head to Broome or Exmouth. The sensory novelty of "beautiful white sand, lush green trees and blue water" made a deep impression on her.

Jamie-Lee is 22 now and lives in Busselton, on the coast south of Perth, so getting a fix of the ocean is not a problem. She and her partner, photographer Nathan Wills, took a trip up to Ningaloo Reef recently and spent two weeks snorkelling with whale sharks, manta rays and turtles.

At a secluded spot called Oyster Bridge he was floating over the reef with his Canon 5D in a waterproof casing, waiting for Jamie-Lee to put her fins on, when a green sea turtle suddenly glided into the frame. With his camera half under the water, he captured this serendipitous moment.

Nathan, 26, hopes one day to open a gallery in Busselton selling his landscape photography, but for the moment he's paying the bills as a projectionist in the town's cinema. He met Jamie-Lee five years ago at the unisex hairdressing salon where she worked - a meeting that, unbeknown to them, had been set up by friends. They've got a lot in common, sharing not only a love of the ocean but also an artistic streak (she's a painter), a Christian faith and a penchant for tattoos.

The trip to Ningaloo was their first proper holiday together - the first time they'd had the money, and the time - and Nathan had a special reason for taking Jamie-Lee to the spot pictured. His late grandmother, who lived in the nearby township of Coral Bay, loved to swim and walk on the beach at Oyster Bridge. "It's a magical spot," says Nathan, who has always known it as Nanna's Lagoon. "It's a place that's important to my family, and when I have a family of my own it's going to be important to them too. That's why I wanted to take Jamie-Lee there."