Two White Emus: Photography came into my life almost 30 years ago due to life changing health issues. I needed something to keep me mentally and physically active. I was living in the Bush in the remote North West of Western Australia’s Pilbara region. My first camera was a little Pentax compact with a 135mm zoom followed by an Olympus OM2n that was bought one night after a drunken disagreement with a couple of old timers concerning two white emus I had seen. The OM was produced as if by magic having apparently just fallen off the back of truck. Money changed hands along with a killer headache the next morning. But hey, I now had my first real camera and it was an SLR, whatever that really meant and it even had a small dent from falling off that truck.
Off I go into the bush clicking away at anything and everything and always keeping a look out for those emus. I could have done with that truck to cart away the huge amount of dud images that camera was taking. Maybe it was that dent. I kept at it, bought a 2rd hand 135 mm lens, added a 2x converter and then (wait for it) a tripod. I was now one seriously decked out Photographer! I needed to know if I was getting any better and so I was showing people my little photo album of 6×4 inch chemist prints while closely watching facial expressions for signs of approval or not, any sign would do. Having so much to learn about Photography and using a camera, f-stops, depth of field, ISO ratings. These were only terms I learned from reading the Olympus Om’s manual which luckily had fallen off that truck with the camera. There was no library, no face book feedback and what the hell was a Google? The time from pressing the shutter to seeing the image took 3 weeks and editing was done though the camera’s view finder.
One of the first of the many things I was to learn about photography was that you needed an audience and if I wanted to be able to actually sell some photo’s one day, people would have to play a part in my development (pun intended). When you live in a township of 50 people and are spending 300 days a year living away in the bush in the middle of nowhere – finding people for an audience was a little bit light on.
The small town I lived in did have a shop, well maybe half a shop that didn’t stock much that you couldn’t eat or run your 4wd on. So, it was a huge surprise the day I found a Photography magazine sitting amongst the 3-month-old Posts, 4wd and Shooter’s magazines. I talked the shop owner into ordering it for me regularly which soon became the talk of the town. Word was ‘John’s reading another type of magazine’. Yes, it was that sort town. I read those magazines from cover to cover, practising different settings, angles, f stops, film speeds, double and long exposures and after another truck load of duds, was finally starting to understand my camera. I found the best film for me was Fuji Velvia Slide ISO 50 (set at 40 ISO) and it certainly reduced my over exposure rate given the brightness of the Pilbara sun and the Tripod had plenty of use in low light. Playing around with light painting was when the penny dropped on how to shoot lightning while standing on the roof of a tray back Ute – out in the middle of the flats with a tripod, rubber thongs and a beer. It worked and I’ve captured some great shots over the years. Lightning is something that I’m a bit crazy about – and don’t forget the rubber thongs.
What does make a good image? Straight horizons, subject matter, colours, shapes, Rule of 3rds – it’s all those and more. However, for me at this time in my development, a second opinion was urgently needed and so I entered the Fuji Showcase Contest in Australian Camera. I don’t know what I expected with my first entry and I can’t even remember the image. But what I do remember is a pink bike leaning on a pink fence did very well. So here I am, living in Australia’s remote Outback in a landscape that is a photographer’s dream and competing with Pink fences. I knew there was a lesson in there somewhere?
I continued to enter the Showcase Contest every month with chemist printed 6×4’s until the day I opened the Magazine and there it was THE OLD CAR by John Walker. Over the next few years my images did very well in the contest and I even had an article published.
Over the years photography became quite a force in my life with teaching it as a guest at Pilbara High Schools or documenting the country of an old Aboriginal Elder, then 20 years later sharing those images with her grandchildren. Walking my Mum down the aisle and shooting her wedding at the same time etc. I believe that without THE OLD CAR, my15 sec of fame, living north of the black stump without the challenge or the audience with just a box of photo’s, I would have given it away. So, when someone asks me how to improve their photography, I tell them to read the camera’s manual, buy camera magazines and enter contests.
For 30 years my camera has travelled Australia from the Pilbara, with its 45 degree days, through the remote dusty outback of South Australia, to the Central Highlands of Tasmania where it snowed only last week. My images have been proudly displayed on walls along the way.
The photography world has changed since I first held that dented Olympus film camera. With the billions of images people are exposed to in today’s media, the true nature of photography to me is the image that somebody prints, frames and hangs on the wall. Seeing one of my images on someone’s wall 15 years on is humbling, as it should be. Stealing that frozen moment in time, with its shapes colours and subject, is what we do as photographers. Digital or film is fundamentally still photography and it’s only the old timer who can always feel the difference. Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop have become my editors for sharpening cropping or going all out arty if the mood strikes me. HDR and Panorama stitching have replaced the good old double exposure and other tricks.
Today my gear is all digital – a Nikon D3100, D7000, Fine Pix P900 with 2000 mm zoom and the latest in the stable a Canon Eos 90D (bought after reading the review in Australian Camera) not leaving out my little pocket camera a Panasonic Lumix DMG-FT-10 that does great underwater video and last but not least an old Minolta Dynax 500Si film camera rescued from the local tip.
I often wonder if the people carrying all that flash camera gear, making me feel like a photographer’s poor cousin with lens envy thrown in, know even half of what their equipment can do. Do they think the flasher the camera the more magical the shutter button is on Auto. I guess it’s a sign of the times. Yes, I know I’m starting to sound like those old timers and I’m still looking for the two white emus after 30 years.
Then there are the photographers who hit you right between the eyes with images so real, perfectly connecting you with the world around and I can only think WOW!